Durga
by Thess
Summary: Set two centuries after the defeat of Millennium. Hellsing faces a different challenge than mere evil: Vengeance. The undead victims of former colonies that had experienced Britain’s Imperialism have returned… with the unleashed Alucard on their side.
1. The Priestess

Disclaimer: Hellsing and all its characters belong to Kouta Hirano, however, I own the original characters inside this story.  
  
Author's notes: This is doomed to be an A/U (like most of the fics in this section, anyway). Nothing published in the Young King Ours Magazine until the moment of the present writing contradicts the events of this work of fiction, but possibly the comic will go in a path different of the one I predicted. Characterizations and background answer to manga, not anime; vampire lore is taken from myths, Hellsing canon and my own ideas. Any criticism is always welcome.  
  
Special Thanks: To Lilliam Dashwood, my beta reader of this chapter.

* * *

**Durga**  
  
_"Vidhuddama Samaprabham  
Mriapatiskandhasthitam Bheeshanam  
Kanyabhin Karavala Shweta  
Vilasathastabhira Sevitam  
Hastaishchakra Gadas Kheta  
Vichikhanshchapam Gunam Tarjanigra  
Vibhranamanalatmikan Shashidharam  
Durgam Trinetra Bhaje"_

**Chapter One**

- **The Priestess**

Blood had been spilled that night. She could sense it. The sweet scent of the precious liquid filled her nostrils. Her eyelids nearly dropped, almost falling. She licked her lips inwardly, thinking of the sweet flavour pouring into her mouth. Nourishing her. Making her stronger.  
  
"Master Seras!" a young voice chirped, snapping her out of the bloodlust thrall. A pale young man, dressed in the Hellsing uniform--a pair of brown boots, plain military green pants and vest with the Hellsing emblem--, appeared. He was barely taller than she, his long blond hair was tied in a ponytail. He had only one brown eye, marking his status as half-vampire. Seras still held hopes that he would learn how to regenerate it one of these days when he decided to recover his freedom. But that wouldn't happen anytime soon, he had inherited her reluctance to feed.  
  
Seras glanced up, looking for the source of the voice, she seemed properly embarrassed for her distraction. _I should have drunk more than one transfusion package before the mission,_ she chastised herself. Hiding her agitation, she smiled at the one who had called her.  
  
"Peter," she acknowledged his presence. "Keep your voice down," she said, pressing a finger on her lips, urging to her fledgling to be quiet.  
  
Peter gulped and nodded, shrinking into himself as he gained several dirty looks from the human troops. His tone had been boisterous. Seras Victoria sighed, an unnecessary gesture for a being who didn't need to breath. Even after decades, he was such a rookie. Sometimes she wondered what possessed her when she turned the boy into a vampire that night in Cheddars.  
  
_Ah but I know why,_ she told herself, _The setting and because he looked like him._  
  
"Should we proceed, Captain Victoria?" one of the soldiers asked.  
  
Seras nodded, scolding to herself for her distracted mood in the middle of an important mission.  
  
_Focus Seras, you don't want Sir Hellsing to go ballistics if you fail, do you? _  
  
"Lieutenant MacLagan." She saw a well built dark haired man step forward, waiting for her orders. "Lead half of the search party and enter by the principal door. Peter," she said, eyeing her fledgling with a serious expression. "You'll take a group of five and enter by the emergency exit."  
  
"Yes, Master!"  
  
"And…" she paused, placing emphasis on her words, "Don't mess up this time or you'll explain Lady Elspeth what happened."

"I won't, I promise Master," he swore. But Seras didn't doubt his dedication, only his efficiency.

"I'll be inside, clearing out the way," she commented before her body started to change, slowly becoming transparent until she was nothing but a grey mist covering the area, advancing towards the supposed battle zone.  
  
She circled the white pillars of the Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology, pouring inside the ancient cream coloured walls. It was a miracle that the structure had endured all this time while most of buildings in London had to be reconstructed. But, unlike London, Oxford hadn't been attacked by Millennium.  
  
Once in, Captain Seras Victoria reformed, one limb at a time. Soon, the police girl stood at the security room, dressed with her yellow uniform and with the Harkonnen tied to her back. Lady Elspeth had suggested that she to change clothes and her firearms, but Seras declined. She was fond of them, foolish sentimentality on her part.  
  
She looked up, the vigilance robots had been destroyed. Their metal parts appeared to had been chewed by some beast, heads were on the other side of the room. Her nose detected the strong odour of oil on the floor. She pushed them away of the desk carefully, not wanting to make any alerting noise, so she could see the monitors better. They had been shattered as well.  
  
_Drat, there goes my plan of studying the territory. I'll have to improvise once there. _  
  
She patted the iron shoulder of one of the broken machine. "You did your best, buddy. Now it's our turn," she whispered. Her eyes narrowed in determination and she headed towards the slaughter room with an inhuman speed. Her legs moved faster than mortal eyes, fouled by the superior strength of her undead muscles. She dodged several statues in her way, the historic patrimony had suffered enough in the hands of the nazis centuries ago. She wouldn't want to follow such a destructive pattern.  
  
She spotted the reception poster of welcome for the grand opening of the new, art in times of war exhibition. The intricate, blue pattern of it was covered with blood and oil. If she were human she would have found the aroma repugnant. To her horror, she found it quite appealing.  
  
Tearing her eyes away from the poster, she walked in, senses alerted to any movement. She paled at the sight that greeted her. Typically, the victims would lay dead with punctures in their necks and holes in their bodies. Instead, they had been dismembered, cut into pieces and put together in a pile made of human parts that reached the ceiling. All except their heads. Those were strewn all over the floor of the exhibition room. Eyes and mouths opened with a panic expression.  
  
Upon hearing a noise, Seras spun to her left, towards one of the emergency exits, holding the Harkonnen with a firm grip.  
  
"Freeze!" she ordered. Realizing who he was, she huffed. "Well done Peter, your stealth is enviable."  
  
Her fledgling had tripped and fallen over several heads but he was standing up now. She could tell from his expression that the smell of blood and fear over the place was overwhelming him as well. "Are you alright?" she asked, less sternly, remembering how it felt to be new.  
  
Peter nodded, quickly distancing himself from the dead parts. He whistled, "No kidding. The survivors are spooked out."  
  
"There are survivors?" she asked as she analysed the entire scene, searching any sign of movement. Where were the culprits? Had they escaped already?  
  
"Yes, about dozen, maybe more. We stumbled on them on our way in," he replied, playing with his weapons, a nervous habit that Seras had noticed on many occasions. "They were freakin' out and screaming about heads. Now…" he paused as his eyes fell on floor again, "I know what they were talking about. All of them are adult males."  
  
Seras half paid attention to his explanation. What mattered to her was that people survived, and Peter's details were unimportant for the time being. 'Search and Destroy.' Those were her orders. Her crimson gaze scanned the room once more but she didn't spot anything amiss.  
  
_This place is empty._  
  
"Captain. Do you copy me, Sir?" Seras heard Lieutenant MacLagan's voice coming out of the small radio disguised as earring.  
  
She touched the little object, "Yes, I copy you, MacLagan. Report."  
  
"The building is clear, except for the Hindu exhibition. There's more victims here."  
  
"Stay there, I'm coming," she commanded, "Be alert, whatever did this… is not alone."  
  
"Roger, Sir."  
  
She lowered her arm and glanced at Peter, "Stay with the survivors, Peter."  
  
Peter pouted. She hated when he did that. Made her feel guilty even if she knew she was right. "But, Master…"  
  
"Don't give me that look, young man," the older vampire said firmly, in a stern, maternal tone. "I need you to protect those people, just in case. That's our priority."  
  
"Yes, Master," Peter replied crestfallen and turned back the way he came.  
  
Seras focused on where her men were, following the sound of the beating hearts. In an empty building like the museum that wasn't such hard task. Once she had located them, Seras became mist, choosing the form because it allowed her to move faster. She reformed just outside the Hindu exhibition, a safe measure for not startling her own troops.  
  
"I'm here, Lieutenant," Seras said, walking inside. The smell of blood caught her attention again. She glanced down. On the floor lay the about six women's heads. Seras noticed that they had been severed differently than the ones from the other exhibition. These ones had the spines attached to them and their intestines hanging, strangely enough they were glowing in the dark.  
  
_How on earth they are glowing?_  
  
MacLagan saluted Seras, distracting her momentarily.  
  
"Captain, what do you think of these ones? We couldn't find their bodies…"  
  
Seras sniffed, taking the scent of blood in the atmosphere. Trying to search any clue of the fiends' location. She frowned. Something was wrong. Looking around, she noticed some of the statues and piece of arts were…bloody?  
  
_Odd. Their scent is like a mixture of many… Oh dear!_  
  
Seras' eyes widened in realization.  
  
"Everybody out! **_Now!_**"  
  
Her warning was useless. As soon the words came out of her mouth, the heads lunged towards the troops. Screaming like banshees, they bit down viciously on their neck, attaching there, tearing flesh and breaking their bones.  
  
After drawing her cannon, Seras shoved MacLagan aside before one of the flying heads could sink her teeth on him. Then she pulled the trigger, aiming at it. The strange vampire creature let got a shriek of pain when she received the shot. "Take that one, bitch!" Seras cursed, fuming for walking into a trap so foolishly. She wasn't a rookie anymore. Such mistakes were unforgivable.  
  
"Fire now!" MacLagan ordered, loading his own rifle.  
  
The heads dropped their captives before flying, jaws open to catch fresh victims. The freed bodies fell to the floor, lifeless.  
  
Before the creatures could grab fresh victims, the rifles shot a column of light. Concentrated ultraviolet rays, to be exact, enough to cause serious burning to a human being, deadly for most species of the undead. They froze, crying out in pain as they were burned alive. A bit of smoke came out of them before the beings were set on fire.  
  
"Step back!" Seras indicated after she lowered the Harkonnen. She paused, then concentrated, gathering a thin curtain of shadow to wrap the flying embers of the heads, a precautionary measure. There was no need to set the whole building on fire. Once she felt the remains had cooled down, the shadows dispersed, dropping the content.  
  
Minutes passed and nobody moved. Except Seras, who carefully poked the remains with her rocket launcher. No response.  
  
"It's over."  
  
The troops who until now had been holding their breath, let got a deep relief sigh.  
  
Never taking her eyes from the corpses, Seras spoke again.  
  
"MacLagan."  
  
"Captain?"  
  
"Take your men and dispose of the bodies in the other exhibition. If you notice any head that has glowing intestines clinging to it, be ready to finish it off. We cannot lose anyone else. I'll be with you in ten minutes." Seras looked down at the dead soldiers.  
  
"U-understood, captain Victoria," he replied. Seras detected the hesitation at once. "Do you have any ideas what those things are?"  
  
She shook her head, glancing at him from the corner of her eyes. "No, I'm not the expert in this stuff." It was true, the Hellsing Master was the guardian of the lore. Seras wasn't overly curious about the fascinating world of the undead. She had had enough problems with understanding her limits to comprehend other species. "Dismissed," she added, and her tone held an underlying insistence.  
  
"My apologies. We'll clean, after you finish, Captain," the Lieutenant replied. Seras was glad that he had caught the hint.  
  
As the footsteps grew distant, Seras got closer to her fallen comrades. Her lips parted in anticipation. This mission had made her the hungriest she'd been for a long time. The great amount of victims and the way win which they were killed awoke the animal that lay, normally dormant, inside her.  
  
Opening wide her mouth, Seras changed the shape of her teeth, deforming them into predatory fangs. Slowly, she bent down, tasting one by one the dead troops. Biting and lapping the blood out their bodies. Making it a part of herself. It was an intimate act of love and respect and thirst had very little to do with it.  
  
It was a matter of duty.  
  
They had lived and died fighting the undead menace. The blood would be wasted away unless she gave it a practical use.  
  
The donated blood wasn't as tasty as the fresh liquid. Nor did it give the same high stamina level, improving her success.  
  
_Now with your blood inside me,_ she thought, her expression melancholic as she remembered the very first time she pierced a neck two or so centuries ago. _You'll be with me forever. We'll defeat those beasts together, I promise. _  
  
She gave one final lick then leaned off the soldiers. The pointed tongue wrapped around her fangs until her mouth regained its normal size, those small lips of hers.  
  
"Amen," she whispered, saluting to them once last time. No matter how much she endured the same act over and over again, it didn't make it less difficult for her. Regardless of that, she overcame it given time.  
  
And after one last minute of mourning silence, Seras Victoria exited, leaving the bloodless bodies behind.


	2. The Empress

Thanks again Lillian Dashwood for editing help! Before anyone asks, yes Alucard _will _appear in future chapters, just not yet. Constructive criticism is appreciated.

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**Durga  
  
Chapter Two**

**- The Empress**

****

People say time flies when you are having fun, and, when you aren't, it's exactly the opposite. Every minute seems an eternity, a never-ending torture you want over.  
  
The latter was exactly the situation for Sir Elspeth Hellsing. Not even the finest Earl Grey tea nor the countless cigars could keep the Hellsing's attention span focused after hours of endless babbling of her so called 'equals'.  
  
_Dear God in Heaven, won't he ever shut up?_ Elspeth thought, twitching her lips in disapproval. She clearly wasn't enjoying Sir Callaghan's speech about the Japanese market. There was almost no Japan left after China had bombed the heathen island, and she didn't deem that small spot lost in the Pacific as the Empire's primary concern. Quite the opposite. Couldn't they see that? For a minute, she contemplated throwing the teacup at his head, breaking the delicate china on his skin, but decided against it. The poor object didn't deserve such a fate.  
  
The Round Table meeting had started two hours ago, and Elspeth had found all the topics incredibly boring. Politics, Economics, Arts, Protocol. For most of the issues addressed, she had thought a solution beforehand, already dispatching people to solve it. Better to let her handle this and not these bureaucrats who dared to call themselves knights was her policy.   
  
Inwardly, Elspeth feared the country would sink further and further until it crumble into nothingness, increasing the damage provoked by the national crisis that had started ten years ago when the countries of the United Kingdom became one sole State. Arrogant though she may be, she was also devoted, heart and soul, to her nation.  
  
For the sake of her image, she put up her best straight posture only broken by the smug smile on lips. It was the smile of someone who knew a secret that no one else aware of. Only a few would dare to question her knowledge, and most feared the consequences. Elspeth Hellsing might not be popular nor well liked by the aristocrats; however she was respected and feared.  
  
Elspeth had inherited the looks and the attitude of her rest of the female predecessors who followed Integral Hellsing's steps. The line had been exclusively female since her reign. Every single one had had long platinum blonde hair,azure eyes, great height and a tan skin that--with the passing generations--was becoming less noticeable. The use of male clothing had become a family tradition. Elspeth was currently dressed with a one piece black pansuit, a tad more feminine looking for her liking but that was the current trend.  
  
The Court, let alone the general public, weren't sure of the situation of the birth of the powerful line that was supposed to secretly control the country's events.   
  
They had no other choice but to believe what they were told: artificial insemination of a surrogate mother, followed by the raising the child in secret by special trainers. Just like Sir Integral's heir, who had appeared decades after her premature death in the battlefield. However, the nobles whispered between each other about a less orthodox method. They gossiped of clones of the original Integral, in an attempt to explain the eerie physical likeness. Elspeth knew the theories and allowed them to spread. Let them continue their little detective game as long it didn't affect her position. That would keep them entertained whilst she protected their necks during the nights.  
  
"Sir Elspeth," the aged man who was sitting at her left spoke, not daring to meet her eyes. "What's your response to the lack of results regarding the incident in the museum?"  
  
The Hellsing turned to look at him carefully. "My steward is taking the matter in his own hands. As you all know, he used to be one of the MI-5's most brilliant agents."  
  
Someone from her right snorted. "That's not enough. We want results, Elspeth."  
  
Anger ignited inside her blue eyes for such an interruption. She loathed to have her duty questioned. Everything should be under her direction to make it right for once.  
  
"As do I, Sir Wilson," she replied, her tone was deadly calm, suppressing any visible fury. "But I haven't seen any advance in stopping the devaluation of the sterling pound," she added, crushing her cigar on the ashtray.  
  
Her smile deepened when Wilson opened his mouth to talk then closed it at once. _Pompous fool. Soon, he'll be replaced by someone more efficient and quiet._ She made a mental note to oversee that subject later, disliking any questioning of her judgment.  
  
"Anyone else here have more complaints about my abilities?" she asked while her gaze trailed one by one over members' faces around the circle. They all inclined their heads and shook them, resigned. "Good, let's proceed then…"  
  
A transparent image appeared on the air, in front of Elspeth. It was a shattered statue made of some dark material. It had rubies and emeralds incrusted as decoration. Even in such a demolished state, and with it's details blurred by time, the statue was visibly a man.  
  
"What's that, Sir Elsepth?" was the uttered inquiring spoken by most of the rest of the knights.  
  
"Soma," was Elspeth's reply. She leaned into her padded chair, platinum hair covering half of her face. Noticing the general puzzlement, she elaborated, "The Hindu god of the moon. My steward found it in the remains of that Malaysian sorcerer who attacked the Embassy of India a week before the museum incident." She paused, inspecting with scrutiny the figure for a moment, "Apparently, he sent his Bajang to retrieve that… The large lizard caused many… disasters in his path…"  
  
The images shifted from the pieces of the statute to half demolished houses.  
  
"But why?!" one of them stood, younger than most in the room, rushed and passionate in his speech.  
  
"That, my friend," she placed her hand on her chin, rubbing idly, "Is the mystery we must solve together..." Elspeth shot the youngling a piercing gaze, "Sit down."  
  
The young knight complied, Elspeph heard his resigned sigh, better for the youth to know their place. But even as he sat, he continued to speak.  
  
"I don't mean to be rude, but this immense wave of attacks against our holy lands are starting to pique the public's curiosity. Especially after those assaults on the Falkland Islands…" he started to say, eyeing the Hellsing warily.  
  
"Britain no longer cares for the Islands. They became their own nation more than a century ago, after all," she pointed out as holograms of the destroyed buildings vanished, replaced by photographs of an army of skeletons chasing the insular people. The majority were carrying XX century style firearms. Others were holding swords with flags of different countries. Blood was dripping from their pale jaws after they lunged for the screaming victims, devouring them. "Although, there's still close ties between the two countries and this strike was an insult to our honour."  
  
Several knights winced at the cannibalistic spectacle, weak of hearts, minds and stomachs Elspeth figured out, disappointed. She bent down to the desk, clapping to turn off the holographic item. The images disappeared upon her commands to the viewers' relief.  
  
"Not only did those Argentinian dogs who fought us long ago rise from the grave, but also several of the oldest inhabitants of the islands… The Dutch and Spanish colonists. "  
  
"What is coming on, Elspeth?" a knight asked, wiping away the drops of sweat trailing down his face with a handkerchief. "This madness can't continue…"  
  
"Obviously not. The losses would be great if it's not stopped at time," the Hellsing pursed her lips, forming a rather sardonic smirk. "It's too soon to give a final statement about who or what is causing all this violence."  
  
"In other words, you don't know. Or do you, Hellsing?"  
  
She glanced over her shoulder, watching Wilson with neutrality, not giving the bastard the pleasure of seeing her angry. "No, it means that it's too soon to jump to a conclusion, or is your hearing failing due to your age, Wilson? Or perhaps it's your memory?"  
  
Elspeth was satisfied when the knight glared at her, bristled by the taunt. It merely took a couple of seconds before the man looked away, unable to hold her piercing stare.  
  
"In the case that of any of you have forgotten, gentlemen," she said coolly, "It's **_I_** who leads this Table. Your bloody existence depends of my very whims along with the fate of this country…" Her tone was dangerous, borderline a hiss. Misogyny apparently had not disappeared with the passing of the ages. "It's my linage who avoided this island's being blown up during the Fourth World War! Without my protection, how long do you think this place will remain in one piece before the undead menace, uhmm?"  
  
An awkward silence followed her heated speech. No one dared to meet her azure eyes, nor to speak anymore. Some were aggravated, biting their own tongues to resist the temptation of insulting her, while the rest were pale, scared by the display. She was contented with that, pleased to make note that the illusion of power and equality was that. An illusion without a solid base in reality.  
  
Elspeth rose then, saluting with a flourished bow, false respect on her part. "I hope I was clear enough in this matter. The meeting is over. I have urgent matters to attend. Dismissed, gentlemen. The next one is scheduled for next week, same hour. May God and Her Majesty be with you. Amen"   
  
They didn't respond, still taken aback for her speech, she assumed. A bat of an eyelash and they were gone, molecular tele-transportation being the easiest way to travel. And the laziest. Even if the knights weren't inside the office anymore, the penetrating smell of their nervous sweat lingered, filling her sensitive nostrils. Disgusted, she wrinkled her nose while making her way out of the room.  
  
As she walked towards the library, Elspeth couldn't help but wonder which one of them would try to 'overthrow' her this time. There usually was one or two per generation, greedy enough to seek to amass personal power and replace the Hellsing as head of the Table, to try his luck. Poor sods the lot of them. None succeed so far. Minor annoyances that usually made excellent 'examples' for the remaining members who fancied with the same idea.  
  
Foolish, power-hungry little men. So unlike Islans or Penwood, now they had deserved their knighthoods and praise. Granted, she yearned for power but not for selfish means, quite the opposite. She wanted power to protect her people better, to maintain this island safe and cleaned of menaces. Never for her own desires, which is why it didn't corrupt her.  
  
To the new knights' credit, some were as dedicated as she, but Elspeth became more paranoid, mistrustful and self-confident with the passing of time, therefore the chances she would admit that were minimal.  
  
Pushing such ponderings away, Elspeth entered the library. The room was probably one of the greater areas of the Mansion. It was divided in sections: the restricted one-the one only a Hellsing could gain access-, the old one-filled with books, a disappearing device in the new century-, and the new one-composed only with computer banks and virtual data. Usually, no one bothered to go to the old section anymore, to very few the idea of reading books was enticing. Only she and a couple of eccentric minds who wondered about the old days.   
  
The lights were on. She wasn't alone in the section. Blue eyes started to search around, watching the countless bookcases to fall finally on a female figure dressed in a yellow uniform, picking up several volumes to her right.  
  
"Captain Victoria," she greeted, surprised by her presence. It was most unusual to have Seras separated from her men.  
  
Elspeth could tell that she had startled Seras for the officer almost dropped the books she was carrying.  
  
"Sir Hellsing!" Seras Victoria saluted, turning around to face her. "My apologies, Sir. I didn't… feel you."  
  
_She should polish her senses more. My presence shouldn't have gone unnoticed._  
  
But, her requests would fall in deaf ears. The Hellsing knew Seras would rather not display her power unless needed in battle. She could be so much more, but cherished her humanity above all. Remarkable attitude, though foolish.  
  
Gesturing for Seras to come closer, Elspeth smiled at her, a rather conspiratorial grin. "It's alright, Seras. At ease. I've told you many times to put aside formalities whilst in private."  
  
The subordinate relaxed the straightened stance of her shoulders and sat down, tossing the books on the table.  
  
"What are we facing? Do you have any idea? I've made some… research of my own, but I'm at loss…"  
  
"I see you have been occupying yourself," Elspeth scanned the titles of the chosen lecture material. "You never cared for vampire lore, Seras…"  
  
"And I don't," Seras replied, leaning on the chair, looking distressed. "I don't need books to explain me about what I am… But… I want to know what those things are…"  
  
"I wouldn't expect less from you, Seras," the Hellsing complimented. All the aggression that she had on the Meeting was gone, and her muscles relaxed. "You're one of the few beings as dedicated as I am."  
  
"You should give those men a rest," Seras suggested, "I don't mean to be disrespectful. I know your work is better than whatever disaster they may cause. But, you are burying yourself with work again. Not everything is your responsibility."  
  
"You have your faults too, Seras. However, I won't bring your fledgling into the conversation," Elspeth shot back while sitting down, "You're avoiding your responsibilities with him. When was the last time you trained that boy?"  
  
The Captain's eyes glowed, offended, "That's personal, it's not the same."  
  
"I know it's private, but so is my role within the Round Table," Elsepth explained to her soldier, "I have no personal life beyond my duty, as it should be…"  
  
Seras closed her mouth, gazing at the table for a while, "I'm just worried… I hate to see you this stressed. You're my friend or almost."  
  
"Your concern is greatly appreciated… You have been my confidant for a long time, and you know this is not the best of my days."  
  
Seras looked up at her boss, smiling, "Queen cranky again?"  
  
"Shut it, you pretentious, little bint. Or I should call you police girl from now on?"  
  
Seras laughed, and Elspeth was glad she did. It had been a while since either of them had been extremely joyful.  
  
"That nickname, God, the good old times," Seras commented, her eyes acquired a dreamy expression before it faltered. "And the not so good ones," she added darkly, her tone a quiet whisper.  
  
Elspeth caught the reference at once, "I suppose you'll want a free day next week…" She knew of course of what date was, the anniversary of Pip Bernadette's death.  
  
"If there's no emergencies, yes…" Seras bit her bottom lip, shooting Elspeth something akin to a mischievous look. "And you should take one of those… The country won't sink because you kick back and relax for twenty four hours."  
  
"You don't know that," Elspeth scoffed, rejecting the mere idea of a free day. "Besides, I _do_ participate leisure activities…"  
  
"Are any of those 'unrelated' to improving yourself for the nation?"  
  
Elspeth pondered her words and frowned, "Fine, you stated a valid point. I'll put consider it _after_ we've stoped this wave of attacks. And don't give me that gleeful look, Seras. You haven't convinced me yet."  
  
"That would be such a feat, wouldn't it?"   
  
Seras rose, flashing Elspeth a fanged smile. "Trying to make the stubborn Hellsing change her mind."  
  
"Don't speak of me about being bull headed, that's a flaw in your character too…" Really, the one who was desperately clinging to what was left of her human side had the gall to call _her_ stubborn?  
  
"Guilty as charged."   
  
Seras smiled sheepishly, visually not bothered in the least by the remark. "Oh, before I forget, the new vehicles you ordered arrived this morning. I may go and check on them before Peter does. You remember last month's incident for sure."  
  
Elspeth nodded, lounging in the chair. Peter was a walking danger, but she had faith that the boy would end up becoming an asset in time. "Indeed, he lost control of the car he was driving and crashed it into the ones parked. My insurance agent had a fit."  
  
"Yes, I doubt the insurance will cover that again. Better to prevent than to cure. In any case, you're better at this research stuff that I am… Your Latin is far better," Seras beamed, saluting respectfully. "Seras Victoria leaves for her duty, Sir!"  
  
"Dismissed, Captain. Try not to drive into the woods. I'm fond of the trees," Elspeth said with a throaty chuckle, for a second she could swear Seras dared to shoot her a dirty look. Must have been her imagination.  
  
Alone once more, Elspeth glanced at the selection of volumes Seras had gathered. She already knew about vampire species probably better than anyone, therefore such books wouldn't offer new knowledge. Her attention was captured by an ancient tome that belonged to her mother.  
  
_The Rig Veda. I remember some of the verses mother used to recite to me. Beautiful, for a heathen book._  
  
Enthralled, the Hellsing snagged it from the pile, settling down to read. Her sixth sense told her that the information could be useful one day. If not, well she could gloat to Seras' face that the workaholic had done something unrelated to her duty at last.


	3. The Fool

Special Thanks: Sensoo, my lovely beta reader.

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**Durga **

**Chapter Three**

- **The Fool**

"Duck, Peter!"

Seras' warning almost came too late for her fledgling to dodge the sword-like fingernails of his attacker. The creature barely missed, cutting through the metal table beside him instead. Slicing it to shreds like it was made of paper instead of steel. The young vampire's pupils dilated, and he caught his breath at the last moment. Some annoyingly human habit. His Master always pointed out that it could be used against him one day. Now she appeared to be right.  
  
Around him, his fellow soldiers were falling like flies. Very few of those vampires were taken down, most turned into flaming balls and flew around until they latched onto their faces, stealing air from their mouths, emptying their lungs, until they collapsed, dead.  
  
Seras, on the other hand, tried to chase them, after failing to capture them with shadows and wasting her Harkonnen ammunition. Peter watched agape as his Master's arms became huge bat wings; she looked surprisingly frightening. Her flapping caused a strong wind that made it difficult for the mortals to move freely, easier targets to the unliving monsters. But he couldn't blame her, they had taken something from the pharmacy, and their main orders were to stop them from stealing whatever they sought.  
  
In his unlife, Peter had seen his collection of beings. First the giant lizard thing, then flying heads, now the oriental-looking, white-haired vampires. And out of the places they attacked, this pharmacy took the cake.  
  
One was charging his way, but he remained still, waiting for the impact. Nothing. The Chinese vampire passed Peter as if he wasn't there. "What?" he muttered, confused before he felt the vampire's brows binding him. He struggled, angry at himself for lowering his guard. If he wanted to gain his Master's respect, he wasn't doing a good job.  
  
"Bernard!" MacLagan shouted, moving in his direction.  
  
"Stay there, I can deal with this." Embarrassed, Peter mustered his strength to break the lasso of hair and punched the attacker into oblivion.  
  
"Retreat!" Stuart MacLagan ordered aloud, they were clearly overrun by the enemy. "We'll try to contain them inside."  
  
Peter rubbed the angry red zone of his neck. _Why? Why did he ignore me the first time?_  
  
_'Haven't you found out yet, Peter?'_ Seras' voice rang inside his head, chiding as a mother would do to a slow child. _'Think about it for a while…'_  
  
Peter pouted at the lecturing tone, furrowing his brow. _Blind… they couldn't see me… Only when I talked… But many of the troops didn't talk and where located easily, Master!_  
  
_'Then… there must be another factor… Not whether you talked or not, but what you required to do so.'_  
  
_Breath! Many were the stealing air from their lungs!_ He looked around, Seras' batting of the wings had dazzled the Chinese vampires. Despite the strong wind, she hadn't put the troops in peril as he first assumed.  
  
_'Very good. Tell MacLagan to hold them until I return. And Peter… don't mess up.'_  
  
Peter turned to MacLagan, gaze absent as his mind formed a plan. "Master orders to hold them here until her return… I'll be right back. I have an idea."  
  
"Bernard! Wait!" Stuart MacLagan tried to stop him, but to no avail. "Your ideas are always dangerous…"  
  
Peter didn't comply with the order. He rushed outside and almost bumped intothe police who were sealing the area. Good thing he covered his eyes to avoid recognition. At the middle of that block, he found what he was looking for. A supermarket. If his memories of campy oriental films were good, the Chinese vampires had a terrible weakness: Rice.  
  
Peter gained a few funny looks from the cashier when he went to pay for the six bags of rice. He knew he was wasting time, but his Master would be angry if he stole them and broke the law. She was that anal retentive with the rules.  
  
Impatient, he dropped more money than he should have and ran towards the pharmacy. She could keep the change. The press was ready to block his way with questions , but he jumped them, literally. Taking an impulse from his legs, the young Nosferatu spun on the air and landed out of their reach. Vultures, no wonder Lady Elspeth hated them as much, they held no consideration for the common good, really. No ethical code to hold them back.  
  
"Back!" Peter said, waving the bags of rice.  
  
"It's about damned time, Bernard…" the lieutenant froze, "Rice? You left us to buy **_that_**?!"  
  
Peter grinned, showing a single fang. "Watch their doom, Stuart." Having said that, he tore apart the bags, spilling the contents on the floor.  
  
The Chinese vampire paused their attack, sniffing the air. The ones who had become balls of light returned to their human shapes. Soon they were over the rice, picking up the grains one by one with their bony fingers. Counting.  
  
Peter blinked, baffled. That wasn't suppose to happen. They should have destroyed by now. Blasted inaccurate vampire flicks!  
  
"That'll stop them," Stuart patted Peter's shoulder. "Good work. But it won't last forever and both, the silver bullets and the ultraviolet concentration rays are ineffective beyond superficial wounds for them."  
  
Peter frowned, eyeing the weapon on MacLagan's back. "Is that a flamethrower? Fire, that could destroy almost everything." According to Lady Elspeth it was because fire purified. Corrupted parts could be born from the ashes anew. Stuart nodded, handing him the weapon. "You ought to be careful… This place is…"  
  
"Thanks, mate!" Peter snagged the firearm cheerfully, turned aroundand pulled the trigger. A curtain of fire shot out at the oriental undead, who didn't pay attention to the flames dancing around them, because they were busy counting their little white treasure.  
  
"Flammable," Stuart finished as Peter continued to bathe their foes on fire. In his quest to destroy them, the vampire accidentally hit the desk and the bottles on the stands, causing the fire to spread through the room.  
  
"To the exit!" MacLagan commanded, squeezing Peter's shoulder in order to urge the vampire to follow him. "Drop that, c'mon, you dolt." He hadn't finished the last words before the fire made contact with chemicals, starting a small explosion that threatened to roast the building and the soldiers inside.  
  
Peter felt the hot caress of the flames before all turned to darkness. It shielded them and contained the peril.  
  
"What are you waiting for?!" Seras' voice came from behind; her wings had changed back into normal arms. "I can't hold it for much longer. Out!"  
  
Peter dropped the flamethrower and picked up three fallen comrades. Then he ran, two on his shoulders and one in his arms. MacLagan gestured the rest to follow him and soon they burst out of the door and windows of the pharmacy. Captain Victoria was waiting for them.  
  
"Everyone down!" Seras ordered to her soldiers, press, police and curious inquiring minds who were watching the scene. Without thinking twice, most threw themselves to the ground, others only did it when they felt the pressure of a shadow sheet over them.  
  
Peter looked up, to see his Master released her hold on the explosion. Wind hurt their ears and faces, but the barrier Seras had woven protected them from the worst. When he lifted his lashes again, the building was but a flaming mass. _Ooops._  
  
"That's the best thing you have to say?" Seras asked, tapping her foot in front of him. His gaze fell on her face and knew at once that she wasn't proud for his achievement.

--------

Seras had spent over two hours inside Elspeth's office and she hadn't come back yet, Peter sipped nervously his blood bag, sensing it wasn't a very good sign. At all.  
  
Peter knew his Master had second thoughts about turning him into one of her kind. Also he was aware that she didn't do it because he was smarter or more brilliant than the rest of the Hellsing rookies operatives. It happened years ago, on that fated mission, but he remembered like yesterday. He had lost his left eye and his braid was undone, spine severed and his abdomen had been viciously slashed. Seras had come to feed on the fallen when she saw him. She looked at his eye and hair with a misted expression of remembrance. She asked the question, he accepted, and during the transformation, she uttered the word 'Pip' under her cold breath.  
  
He was never Peter Bernard but a failed replacement of Pip Bernadette. That angered him and saddened him at the same time. He didn't wish to be here just because he looked like someone from her past, he wanted to be part of Hellsing because he deserved it. He leaned on his chair and finished drinking the synthetic blood. He preferred the taste of the real thing, but apparently Seras thought it would be a suitable punishment for his actions. Like he was some kind of naughty little brat.  
  
"Bernard," MacLagan smacked the back of Peter's head to attract his attention. He turned his head, glancing at Stuart over his shoulder. "Oh, now you decide to notice me." He smiled and sat on the opposite chair, putting his legs over the coffee table. "The Captain hasn't returned yet, has she?"  
  
"Nope. I fear our boss is takin' it with her…"  
  
"Well, she's the responsible for your actions, as superior and your personal nanny," he gave a shrug. "But personally I don't think Elspeth is shouting at her. The two of them seemed strangely close."  
  
Peter snorted, "Don't tell me you believe in bloody rumors?"  
  
"That they are fags? No, I meant friends. Seras is certainly not a dyke and Elspeth probably doesn't have time for any gender. A pity, she's not bad on the eyes."  
  
"It's the hair," Peter agreed with a cheeky smirk. "Friends… Master has no problem dallying with us… Boss is lonely, I haven't seen her with a single friend inside or outside the court. But she's not sharing her private life, I think if we knew about it, she would kill us to keep it a secret. Stuart laughed. "The scary thing is, she would probably do that. But, think about it. They are the only female, high-ranking members of this organization . It's not a surprise that they are close."  
  
"Speaking behind our backs now?" Seras asked, startling Peter. She was leaning on the threshold of the hall.  
  
"Yo Captain," MacLagan gulped nervous, just realizing she had listened to their chat. Peter knew he was riled, the Lieutenant pulled out a cigarette. He always smoke when something was wrong.  
  
"Hey Master," Peter waved his hand, smiling sheepishly as she walked closer.  
  
"For your credit, you didn't start with perverted male fantasies," Seras grinned, almost goofily, as she bent down to snap the just lit cigarette out of Stuart's lips to bring it to hers. "For that," she inhaled the cigarillo, "I won't report this to the Boss."  
  
Peter shifted on his seat, Seras did this from time to time. That grin wasn't like her cocky fanged one. Most took as part of her personality, but as her fledgling, he knew it wasn't. She wouldn't look at into adult content films like they did the other day. She would have probably lectured them for doing so.  
  
"Peter," Seras exhaled the smoke from her lips. "She wants a word with you."  
  
Peter swallowed the last remnants of his blood, stood, and strode towards the door. "Wish me luck…" In response, Stuart whistled a death march.

--------

Peter prepared himself to meet Elspeth, mentally trying to anticipate her words and attitude. Talking to her was like having a chat with God. If He could reply to you, anyway. When she looked at you it was like she pierced the secrets of your soul, all-knowing but at the same time oblivious and detached from most matters. Distant, but caring. The rookies had trouble with her at first, until they realized that her cold façade, the one she used to everyone outside Hellsing, didn't apply to the members of the organization, her chosen people.  
  
Peter kicked himself mentally for the comparison. If the boss knew, she wouldn't be pleased by such blasphemous thoughts. He rubbed his forearms as the atmosphere became chilling. That usually happened when one neared her office. He figured it couldn't be the air central system but rather his nervous state. His knuckles didn't have a chance to knock. The door opened automatically, making him lose balance. Stumbling, he entered.  
  
"Welcome, Bernard," Elspeth rose from her chair, gesturing to the seat in front of her desk before settling down once more. "Sit down."  
  
"Greetings, Sir Hellsing," Peter saluted formally and hurriedly lounged on the chair, shrinking within himself in front of Elspeth. She intimidated him.  
  
She chuckled at that, crushing her finished cigar in the ashtray. "Relax, Bernard. I'm not going to bite you." Despite her friendly words, he didn't feel much better. "Captain Victoria already gave you a long lecture about this business, correct?" She didn't wait for his reply, as usual she knew. "Thus I'll be short and concise. Your little fireworks display cost the organization not only money to reconstruct that building, but also popularity in the public opinion," her tone changed from kind to cold. "In the midst of the latter incidents this could be a mortal strike to Hellsing's reputation. The press is already gossiping that our undead 'pets' are misbehaving. If this continues, the Prime Minister and Her Highness may order me to destroy both, Seras and you."  
  
Peter's eye widened at that, agitated by the news. "But Master is innocent of all that…"  
  
"Calm down, Bernard. Rest assured that I have _no_ intention of harming Seras or you, no matter how troublesome you are. Which is why I'll grant you one last chance. Don't cause problems again… Or your punishment would be much more severe than a year without days off…" she warned grimly.  
  
"I didn't mean to be a burden, Sir," Peter said, casting his gaze to her desk. He was crestfallen and tired every time he tried to do things right, came out badly.  
  
"I know you have good intentions, Bernard but… if the world merely worked on good intentions it would be better than the one we live in," her words warmed up a little bit. "I must say that if you hadn't acted so brash while using that flamethrower, I would be congratulating you instead of this."  
  
Peter caught the hint at once, "I'll try to control my temper." He meant it, he should have been more careful, that would have prevented many things.  
  
"I read the reports. The use of the rice captured my attention. I must confess I wasn't aware you read vampire lore and knew the chiang-shih weakness."  
  
Peter swallowed a laugh. "I like horror films. When I was a kid I wanted to be a vampire hunter; that's why I applied to Hellsing."  
  
"I see. Well… that's all, Bernard. Dismissed."  
  
Peter hesitated to stand. "May I ask you something, Sir?"  
  
"That depends," Elspeth placed her elbows on her desk to support her body. "What is it?"  
  
"Regarding the missions… I noticed all the attacks were related to India. Embassy, museum exhibition, and now the biggest pharmacy in London owned by Hindu descendants. What are they searching for?"  
  
Elspeth smiled, secretive and scheming. "I can't give up all details… Confidential. But I can tell you the Captain failed to capture the fugitive oriental monsters. They escaped with their quarry…"  
  
"Master… came back to protect us… She's not…" He was silenced by a gesture of her hands, Peter couldn't allow Seras' failure to spot her profile. He was willing to take the blame.  
  
"Quiet, Bernard, I haven't finished. They took something I believe is useless," Elspeth tossed him a tablet.  
  
He caught it in the air and read aloud. "Carisoprodol. Skeletal Muscular Relaxant in base of Soma. Available only by medical prescription."  
  
"Unless they had pain in their extremities and couldn't afford to buy the tablets," Elspeth started with her own brand of wry humor. "I say they took the wrong Soma."  
  
"Soma…" Peter rubbed his chin, he had heard about that name before. "Isn't that a mushroom? A drug? It's popular in the black market."  
  
Elspeth nodded, "Among other things, yes."  
  
He didn't understand; why were they after a drug that was easily acquired by dealers on the streets? It was mind-boggling.  
  
"Sir Hellsing!"  
  
Peter turned around to gaze at the newcomer. The man looked to be in his fifties. He was dressed in tweed and had a bruise on his cheek. He recognized him at once; Alan Bond, Hellsing's retainer. He wondered how Alan had managed to get himself injured. "Yes, Alan? How was the mission? Are you hurt?"  
  
Alan cast a spare glance to Peter before returning his attention towards Elspeth. "I'm well, Lady Elspeth. I did this carelessly in my escape," he answered politely. "I found out the terrorist group's name…"  
  
Peter noted the pause, knowing that the other man did not continue because of his presence.  
  
"Go on, the name isn't a secret from my men… They should be aware of what they are facing."  
  
"As you like, milady," Alan sighed, "They called themselves the Asuras. Or that was what I could distinguish between their gibberish and hisses."  
  
"Asuras…" Elspeth looked pensive. "More Hindu references… I'll have to contact the Ambassador in New Delhi."  
  
"That's not all," Alan remarked curtly, "I also overheard this… Allow me to re-phrase it for you: _'The Red Dragon will come to assist us soon. London will become the City of the Impaled again.'_"  
  
What happened next stunned Peter. Elspeth's jaw clenched, her features twisted in fury as she slammed her fist to the table. Manythings fell. The usually collected woman had lost her temper. Red Dragon, he would had to ask Seras about this.  
  
"So… he joined the enemy," Elspeth muttered to herself, long strands fell across her face, shielding her expression from Peter's view. As if she had read the young vampire's thoughts, the Hellsing added harshly. "Not a word about this 'Red Dragon' and the last conversation to anyone, Bernard. Especially Seras. I need to evaluate my course of action. Feel free to communicate the Asuras' name. Now go."  
  
Peter nodded absently, heading towards the door quickly. Certainly it would be a mistake to upset Lady Hellsing in this state. But before their voices left his superior hearing range, the fledgling eavesdropped on the rest of the chat.  
  
"Alan…" He heard Elspeth spoke.  
  
"Orders, Sir?"  
  
"Red code… Bring me my weapons… I'm going hunting…"  
  
"Are you certain, milady?"  
  
"Of course." Peter had more trouble distinguishing the sounds at that distance but at least he heard Elspeth's remark. "Isn't the job of the gallant knight to slay the evil Dragon?" He couldn't but feel sorry for this 'Dragon' bloke.


	4. The Devil

Special Thanks: Sensoo, who edited this chapter into proper English.

* * *

**Durga**

**Chapter Four**

**- The Devil**

Amar Hokmee didn't believe in non-violent methods anymore, nor in Sat Guru. He lost bothhis faith and his principles, when he beheld the execution of his mother.  
  
He could recall the time when his mother preached the non-violence with fervor, boycotting the British monopoly in the Ludhiana district.  
  
"Dress in white, little monkey," Stm. Hokmee used to say, straightening his clothes. "And with their cotton, but do not accept their help. We won't harm them, but we won't cooperate with the foreigners either. That's what Ram Singh suggests."  
  
Her smile melted him inside, the same gesture that left a void so many years later.  
  
Amar squeezed his eyes shut, trying to forget the words that would doom his mother and himself, years after of the event. But that event changed his life and would linger in his subconscious forever.  
  
They were innocent, the sixty-eight of them, but they were accused of open rebellion by deputy commissioner Cowan. Their peaceful marches and resistance against the British Crown was enough to deserve death.  
  
Even now, the way she had died brought a chill to his spine.  
  
His mother was praying, chanting while they tied her to the mouth of the cannon. Her eyes wandered through the audience and stared at him. The sight filled him with tears. She smiled once more before her abdomen was blown into pieces of meat that landed meters away, and a geyser of blood poured from her lips.  
  
He heard the rest of the Sikh believers gasp and blanch at the frightful sight. Some passed out, others threw up, many remained quiet. Amar knew why… Such defilement of the body made the entrance of Heaven uncertain. In that precise moment, the boy forsook his religion and peaceful ways and congratulated Cowan for his achievement.  
  
Uncaring of the putrid smell, Amar watched the vultures devouring his mother remains until only the bones were left.  
  
Amar Hokmee died before he turned fifteen, hanged due to insubordination. When he rose from the grave, he called himself Mahisa. As defiance of his former religion, he embraced Hinduism if only to fit into the new world. He was a faithless creature, and used religious beliefs to control other beings. And thus he started to plot his vengeance and he made a promise to himself not to die anymore…

-------

The air was warm, typical in places with tropical weather. The vegetation ran thick around the sinister gathering, held in one of the few last emerald posts, left on the gray-bricked world. The moon shone above in the sky, yellow and fiendish, an eternal companion of theirs. Not many were aware that the soil they were on used to be a camp of horrors, where many lost their lives due to a quest of freedom.  
  
Mahisa peered outside the window of the ancient temple, counting absently the number of his supporters. Over four centuries he had waited, the endless thirst for payback would be sated soon. He could laugh in anticipation. He was a Pacu-Pati, Master of the Herd, they would bow to his supreme charisma for sure.  
  
Spidery fingers poised on his shoulder, distracting Mahisa from the thrill of the oncoming victory.  
  
"My lord Mahisa…" The Chinese man said. He dressed in a Cantonese fashion; his dark green clothes had a signature oriental dragon stamp. He was bald and wore a hat to cover his head. "I bring news from Tara Romaneasca."  
  
Mahisa turned around, brushing his messy black hair behind his ear. "What does Voivode Alucard want now?"  
  
"Alucard said he will meet us in London directly."  
  
Mahisa scowled, disliking the news. The Dragon was always putting special conditions on his aid and didn't acknowledge him as leader. The Pacu Pati was losing all patience in treating that rebellious Nosferatu. His objectives and reasons forwhy he even contacted them remained a mystery.  
  
"Mahisa, I beg your pardon, but perhaps it would be better if we don't associate ourselves with that madman…"  
  
"You shouldn't speak ill of him, Lin Tse-Hsü," Mahisa spoke, giving an indignant sniff and straightened his pure white kurta shalwar. "He gave us the location of where the Soma was. While your useless men brought me muscular relaxants!"  
  
"Point, but you can trust my integrity," the former Imperial Commissioner huffed. "You forgot that monster used to dally with the enemy. Heaven saved them."  
  
"He was their slave, oh Lin of Clear Sky," Mahisa replied, using his given name as a mockery. "Just like our people were for centuries. Bowing to their so-called superior influence. And besides a kuang shih, shouldn't speak of integrity; we are all monsters now."  
  
"Should I remind you of the existence of the Stockholm Syndrome, Lord Mahisa?" Lin asked deadly serious, shooting a fulminate glare to the younger undead. "We aren't sure how deep the Voivode was affected. He still uses the servant moniker instead of his real name."  
  
Soft noises caught their attention, interrupting their argument. With bare feet that almost emitted no sounds, Zipporah stepped inside the room. Looking feral as usual, with her ebony skin and leopard fur wrapped around her slender form. She said nothing just stared at the two of them with pitch black orbs; the soulless eyes of a hunter without humanity left. Raising a hand, fireflies appeared to illuminate their path to the exit. She didn't need to speak, Mahisa understood and strode, leading the way.  
  
Reaching a truce, Lin followed him. Soon Zipporah joined the party, forming the Triumvirate of the Asuras.  
  
The crowd overcame his vision. Hundreds calling out his name in adoration, in worship, in need . They believed him, they chose him as Mahisa, regardless of the religion they followed-if they had one-they had bowed to his whims and ideals. To their desire to crush New Britannia. Each of them had a reason to attack them.  
  
The memory of impotence, like himself.  
  
The oath to her dying people, like Zipporah.  
  
The restoration of tainted honor, like Lin.  
  
The mass would make Mahisa their Demon God, who would rule the former usurpers as the Englishmen had done to them. But to be a God, he must be true immortal first. He must possess the Soma.  
  
Mahisa stopped at the edge of the staircase of the temple, Zipporah detained and positioned herself on his right, while Lin did the same on his left. He cast a supporting glance to both then faced the flowers, raising his hands to request silence.  
  
"Brothers and sisters of the night, I have called you here tonight to tell you that time of our revenge has finally arrived!" Mahisa started, passion in his speech. Masses loved passion, even if was fake. Their unlives not had stolen this from them. "I have sent a group of raksashas to bring me the Soma! The final step to my success and yours!" He paused, allowing them time to cheer. "We'll show those bastards imperialisms how we suffered under their oppression! We'll make them shed blood tears, we'll feed in their bones and the flesh of their children as they destroyed ours! Now, while they are weak, we'll strike! Their karma demands it."  
  
Mahisa gave a boyish grin, glowing in his unnatural charisma as his voice resounded over the green surface of the woods, scaring the animals in the proximitydesecrating the holy building. "We'll all wear white, cotton robes of protest. Displaying the last resort of our dignity, glorify us in violence!"  
  
As he had planned, the positive results were shown in their exclamations. He could sense it was honest. Vampires didn't change much, creatures of stasis they were. They developed mortal characteristics to the extreme. A lifetime of humiliation would eventually shatter any soul, as kind it used to be.  
  
"That is all," Mahisa placed a hand over his chest, where his heart used to be. Turning around, he returned to the temple, wanting to contact his soldiers. Zipporah and Lin were at his heels, as faithful shadows.  
  
"That turned out pretty well," Lin lounged on a stone seat.  
  
Zipporah nodded in agreement, looking pensive about something, as usual. Mahisa was tempted to order her to regrow the tongue she slashed out centuries ago. How her mind worked was still a mystery to him. He only knew she wouldn't talk until she fulfilled her promise to her fallen folk. That made him refrain from such a demand, respecting her choice to remain mute. There was an untold dignity in her silent suffering.  
  
"Mahisa," Lin addressed him. "Can you contact the raksashas? They haven't sent a message since they broke into that mansion."  
  
That lack of communication worried the Pacu Pati. He wondered, inwardly, if there was something amiss in the West. That bloody Hellsing Organization stood between him and his Soma, literally.  
  
"Yes, I can. They better have a good explanation…" the leader of the Asuras sat on the floor, assuming a meditation posture. Crossing his legs and lowering his eyelashes, he forced his spirit out of the shell that tied him to earthly matters. A third eye opened in the middle of his temple.  
  
Mahisa's soul traveled miles towards enemy ground, until he found the connection of fellow Hindu vampires and the sight, shocked him.  
  
Darkness was everywhere, cold Abyss caressed his ghostly figure. It chilled him, even in immaterial form. It was capable of freezing the spirit as well as the body. That revelation in itself was quite frightening.  
  
In that instant, Mahisa saw his men, or rather what was left of them. For a moment, he wished he was mortal so he could be blind in such shadows. But he wasn't human anymore.  
  
Only one was standing, gripped by the tendrils that shackled him as prisoner. He was struggling bravely, the slits he had for eyes narrowed in determination and talons grew to strike his opponent. The rest lay on the floor, half-eaten and bloodless carcasses. He could tell who they were from the fur and the green and brown of the skin. Darkness was apparently feeding off them. He searched for the source of such power and all clues indicated the cloaked figure that was interrogating the unliving raksasha. In fact, the darkness was an extension of the tunic that covered this being's body. A second skin of sorts.  
  
"What's the Dragon of the Carpathians relationship with your Mahisa? Describe what you know…"  
  
It was a female voice. Icy as the very abyss that threatened to swallow him at any moment.  
  
Mahisa felt proud as his soldier growled in reply, spitting at the wench's hidden face. The shadowy chains tightened more, in a fruitless attempt to suffocate a being that didn't breathe. He snickered at the effort until he heard the beast's ribs break and his wince of pain.  
  
"Come now, that wasn't very polite. Maybe words are useless with you." Effortlessly, she grabbed his jaw and fractured it with a swing of her wrist. "One way or another, Asura, I'll find out the information. You have chosen how. Non-violent methods aren't good enough for your kind? Come and join your little friends then…"  
  
Mouths popped out from the curtain of shadows behind the shackled raksasha. They were countless and of different size. The full lips parted to show elongated canines glittering as if they possessed their own light. Mahisa could see how a trail of saliva fell on his trapped man's ear, burning it until it dissolved and fell to the floor where it was snapped and munched by eager teeth. The creature screamed as the acid fluid covered his form.  
  
"Not as brave now, are you? Of course not, the extension of your courage applies to battles with defenseless humans. Truly pathetic."  
  
The mouths started to whisper on the other ear, Mahisa couldn't distinguish of what they were talking about. It was gibberish followed by a cruel laugh. After that, darkness slowly wrapped around the raksasha who gave a soul crushing howl.  
  
The woman stood, giving Mahisa her back. But something told him that she knew he was there, and that sheallowed his presence as a warning. She snapped her fingers and the shadows vanished, displaying the entrance of the Hellsing Mansion that he had seen in holograms.  
  
His eyes sought for any sign of his envoys, only to find the bones that flesh and fur once covered. They faded to dust and wind swept it away.  
  
"As you can see, heathen," the woman said, licking the blood smeared on her fingertips. "New Britannia won't fall easily to your pretences of menace."  
  
He couldn't reply to her, feeling his soul pushed by her spiritual power back to his body, a continent apart. The last image carved into his mind was a flash of her blonde hair.

--------

Mahisa gasped for air as he awoke from his meditation, sweat bathed his face and he almost could swear that his heart was beating again, pounding out of his chest.  
  
"Milord?" Lin bent down, features expressing genuine concern. "What happened, Mahisa? Why they are taking so long?"  
  
Mahisa collected himself, feeling Zipporah's soft hands caressing his hair always calmed him down. "They won't come back…" he uttered, grimacing. He would not lose like his namesake did, but fate was taunting him again, the bitter feeling of impotence spread inside himself fast.  
  
"What? Why?"  
  
"We'll have to advance our plans, Lin," Mahisa brushed away Zipporah's attentions and rose. "We hadn't counted on Durga's challenge."


	5. The Lovers

Special thanks: Lyanna Kane, my editor of this chapter.

Author's notes: Spoilers for the manga.

* * *

**Durga**

**Chapter Five  
  
- The Lovers**

Everything was calm around the Mansion, far too still, too quiet. Most unnatural, especially if one was to consider the set of assaults conducted against the island lately. Seras frowned at the thought. They must have reached to the point where they were on the eye of the storm; the silence and the calm before furious winds of the tempest would annihilate everything in their path.  
  
_Speaking of storms…_ Seras Victoria sniffed the air, glancing to the sky above her. It was clear with the exception of a mass of obscure clouds coming from the east. _It's going to rain._  
  
Seras lowered her lashes again, feeling the softness of the breeze caressing her cheeks. She was greatly delighted by her little hideout on the roof of the Mansion, where few could bother her, where she could sprawl and nap without suffering obnoxious interruptions.  
  
Seras desperately needed a few moments of peace in order to meditate, to grasp her real memories lest her mind with shatter with the imbued ones. Her sense of self was a turmoil, with flashes of personalities, attitudes and tastes that weren't hers lingering inside her subconscious. When she was overwhelmed and stressed, then it was at its most notable. She then wouldn't act like Seras but as Mike, Paul, Steven… Any of the fallen men she had fed on, the men she had taken on as a part of herself. But the strongest trait was also the oldest: Pip Bernadette.  
  
_I won't think of him… not now…_ Seras bit her bottom lip, chasing away the images of Pip's dying in an attempt to save her. The taste of his warm mouth against hers, a bloody and passionate kiss even in the brink of death. She snorted. The vampire conceded Frenchmen were the best kissers because of that. Remarkable that even after two centuries she recalled the taste of his blood. That had been one of the worst days in her life, with only the night her parents were murdered as its one rival.  
  
Seras scowled to herself, _Quit the morose act and seek a cigarette. Everything would be peachy with one._ That line of thought worried her, she wasn't fond of tobacco. Nasty habit. It polluted people's health a**s **well as the environment.  
  
A Lightening illuminated the firmament, followed by the rumble of a thunder. The first drops of the rain fell on her face, awaking her numb senses. Smiling, she opened her mouth to allow them to get inside. Water didn't offer nourishment but it refreshed her throat nonetheless.  
  
Seras remained static for a few minutes, enjoying the soft dripping around her, soaking her hair and uniform. Oblivious to fears of getting a cold or any human weakness.  
  
The sudden change in the speed of the wind nearly took her off guard. The wind turning violent pointed to the storm worsening. If she hadn't been a vampire, the force would have probably thrown her out of balance. There was an uncharacteristic coldness to it, the scent of faraway mountain. Her blood boiled, recognizing it.  
  
Seras panicked briefly, until she took a hold of her childish reaction as the scent of warmth and exotic spices supplanted the icy one. Then everything abated. That didn't tranquillise her to the least.  
  
_A bad omen?_ Seras wondered as she rose, glancing around in case there was anything suspicious. _Winds of change… That wasn't natural._ The atmosphere was charged, and to her this translated as the trademark job of someone--or something--with skill over the elements. She felt a shudder travelling down her spine.  
  
Change. Such a dreadful word. Vampires were… not very good in adapting, they were creatures of stasis. Her own personal experiences in the matter hadn't been entirely too positive. 

--------

"Master?" Peter asked, looking at the soaked Seras who just jumped from the roof to the ground, startling him.  
  
Seras shook herself, cracking the muscles of her neck. "Watching the storm?"  
  
"It's relaxing..."  
  
Seras grinned, showing her fangs in gestures akin to those of a cat. "Vampires usually recoil to water."  
  
"Like brats who don't wish to take a bath," her fledgling added with a mirthful expression.  
  
"Not quite right but close," Seras let go to a laugh. "But the force of the elements, tempests -- it all entices us and it makes us stronger."  
  
"Odd."  
  
"Paradoxical," she corrected him, and something about him caught her attention at once. He had his hair lose. "You always tie it."  
  
"I want to change my style." Peter shrugged, and it appeared to her as if he were hiding something. "It doesn't please you, does it?"  
  
Seras didn't bother to answer, her slender fingertips brushing his long strands longingly. But not for Peter, not for any person in particular, but for the idea of one ghost of her past. Peter protested but she paid him no notice, and soon his hair was braided.  
  
"Much better," Seras winked, admiring her handiwork.  
  
"I am not he."  
  
Her irises reflected a fleeting anger at the mention of her delusion, her mightiest flaw of character. "Don't remind me."  
  
"Master..." Peter called out as she slammed the door behind her, entering the Mansion. She didn't know why she had acted violently around him. He was innocent. She would have to re evaluate her behaviour. Shaking her head, the former police girl walked towards Elspeth's office.

--------

When Seras ventured inside the office, Elspeth Hellsing was standing with her back to the door, looking outside the window with a lit cigar between her fingers. She was dressed in her knight attire, which increased Seras' suspicions of something being horribly wrong, her boss was dressed to march towards a battle.  
  
"You have felt it." The Hellsing's voice was firm **-** was a statement, not a question. Seras knew she held very few doubts.  
  
"Yes, I have," Seras replied, going closer to her, sparing a glance or two towards the headlines of the holograms. News around the country and the world. Her attention focused on the woman before her once more. She knew that the Hellsing wouldn't apologize for not telling her. It was her choice as her leader to keep secrets and Seras accepted it.  
  
"Things are going from bad to worse," Elspeth commented, crushing the cigar on the wall.  
  
"Because of the attack at the Mansion two nights ago? There were no causalities..."  
  
Elspeth turned around, leaning to the closed window, supporting her weight there. "That those monsters had the cheek to put a foot in my propriety is quite worrisome by own merits, Seras," she started with a wry smirk. "But I was referring to the situation of the country beyond that... Many nations have blocked us economically for no good reason. They don't offer explanations and we need their primal supplies. At this rate, with the inner problems brought by the unification, the whole island could collapse."  
  
Seras' eyes widened, she hadn't minded her problems beyond the attack of the supernatural. She had forgotten that there was a system that sustained everything. "But you have thought of something."  
  
Elspeth nodded slowly, "I did, but I have run into certain obstacles in my current position of power. The people have lost the faith in the Prime Minister after the smuggling scandal. And the Royal family's image isn't much better given the former ruler's fetishes... They are asking for someone to transparently assure their government's smooth run but not to exercise direct control. Someone to keep everything in check."  
  
"You?" Seras studied the woman before her; she had known her for a long time and could discern when she was fighting with herself to take decisions. This was one of those few occasions.  
  
"Who else? If you want something right, do it yourself," Elspeth chuckled - the struggle inside her eyes was evident. Her boss was uncertain; it was never a good sign.  
  
"Then?"  
  
"It's not as easy to change from what we're accustomed. You should know this better than anyone."  
  
They stared at each other in unspoken understanding for several minutes until Seras broke the silence.  
  
"Of course, boss," she saluted and inclined her head with a kooky smile.  
  
"Seras?" Elspeth wondered, abandoning her post.  
  
Seras blinked, grabbing her forehead. "I'm sorry I was..."  
  
"Gone."  
  
Seras diverted her gaze, predicting a lecture coming from her superior.  
  
"You are over two centuries, Captain," the knight's tone turned colder, less personal. "You don't need anyone to nanny you and you have shown this in battlefield. But if your feeding habit continues, you'll be driven insane by alien patrons of thoughts."  
  
"I am not that weak!" Seras shouted, offended, hands closed in fists. "I can control it."  
  
"I am not saying you are weak, Police Girl," she pointed out with a forceful tone. Seras winced inwardly; the moniker was usually done in a teasing tone unlike the one Elspeth just used. "But you mentally attach yourself when drinking their blood. You made them part of yourself, perhaps even capturing part of their spirits. I suggest that you should distance yourself emotionally while doing this next time, as a test..."  
  
Seras sighed, unnecessary for someone who only used air to speak. "If that lifts a burden from your conscience."  
  
"Good girl."  
  
"I ask your permission to retire, Sir."  
  
Elspeth pondered, stroking her chin with her fingertips. "I'm going out too, Seras. I would like to leave you in charge."  
  
Seras' gaze wandered towards the floor. "It's the anniversary. And my free day." She needed to go, it was traditional.  
  
"You should devote less of your time to dallying with the dead and pay more attention to the living and the unliving, Seras," Elspeth threw her a barb. "Go. Pick some flowers from the garden. At the smallest sign of violence, come back..."  
  
"Yes, sir!" Seras was tempted to inquire on where she was going but knew the response already. Elspeth was going to fulfil her role as knight, regardless of the nature of the consequences.

-------

Yellow roses for friendship, red roses for passion. Seras was uncertain of which bloom to bring to Pip's grave, so she picked one of each.  
  
Her feelings towards the dead Captain were almost blurred; the only thing she knew for sure was that it was the deepest sorrow she had felt ever since her parents were murdered. And the greatest rage afterwards.  
  
Angry towards the Nazis who had killed him. Their laughter at her pain.  
  
Angry towards Pip who died on her lap after saving her. His warm lips brushing hers.  
  
Angry towards herself for being so weak and for being incapable to protect him. Her broken body that refused to move.  
  
Angry towards the missed chances of experimenting her emotions, towards the opportunities lost as she rejected his advances. Opportunities to bring her the remorse of what could have been.  
  
Pip was the only one, apart of mother and father Victoria, who had been willing to give up everything for her. And like them, he had showed it. Carrying her to safety through the rain of bullets that had pierced his legs. Seras couldn't see that, but she did smell and hear his pain. He hadn't dropped her even when she had requested it.  
  
_Stop, Seras Victoria,_ she chided herself, _Are you agreeing with her that you're living around the dead?_  
  
Elspeth pried too much in what wasn't her business at times.  
  
The cemetery was immense. All the Hellsing soldiers were buried here, unless their families requested cremation and that they should keep the ashes. That was one of the conditions accepted whilst joined the organization. Hellsing was more important than their personal lives; Hellsing would always come first and foremost.  
  
At the end of the neatly lined tombs, marking the limits of the graveyard was the Hellsing bloodline's crypt. A huge building of two floors that resembled a small Victorian mansion. There were two figures on the gateway, an angel and a gargoyle giving the impression that they could move and strike down anyone who dared enter in the secret they so jealously guarded.  
  
It wasn't merely an illusion. The bruises she had gained last time Seras had tried to step inside were evidence enough. Cursed Hellsing tricks.  
  
She strode on the narrow path until arriving to Pip's grave. Her eyes wandered at the inscription:

_Pip Bernadette.  
(1972-1999)  
Captain. Friend. Hero.  
R.I.P._

She knelt before it, placing the bouquet on the ground, sweeping the dried flowers away. It struck her as humorous how an atheist had been given a Christian burial. According to the boss, he would enter in God's grace**s** by his last accomplishments.  
  
She prayed silently for hours, mostly for Pip but also for the souls of her parents, for Walter and for everyone she had held dear and was now lost. If she had known where her parents' tombs were, she would have visited them as well. It wasn't as if she was brooding or angsting - God forbid that – but Seras liked to contemplate what to do with her unlife as she remembered the fallen.  
  
To distinguish which was her feelings and which were Pip's and the rest. Seeing their tombs had her recall them, that they had died and that she couldn't live their lives for them, that she could only fight for them. That this invasion couldn't persist any longer.  
  
Seras made the sign of the cross and stood, scanning the place one more time before walking away. She had been absorbed by inner musings that she hadn't realized how late it was. The sun was setting on the west as the moon was rising as Queen of the Night. It had a foreboding halo around the surface, a red areola.  
  
Seras stopped her pacing abruptly. Her jaw tensed as the smell carried by the wind filled her senses; the unmistakable aroma of blood and smoke.  
  
_'Master!'_ She heard Peter screaming inside her mind desperately.  
  
_I'm coming!_ She replied, shifting her arms into batwings and taking off. _Hold them, Peter! Don't mess up this time!_  
  
Seras Victoria flew towards the Mansion, ignoring the call of her former Master, who had just stepped on British soil. Alucard could wait. She had a war to win.


	6. The Emperor

Author's notes: Unlike the other chapter, what happens in this chapter, hasn't happened in the manga. Just a little prediction by me. I'm grateful to Lyanna Kane for her edition.

* * *

**Durga**

**   
  
Chapter Six  
  
- The Emperor**  
  
A horde of bats crossed the skies of the destroyed city, batting their wings as they made their squeaking noises. The smell of blood was certainly invigorant for the creatures; and there was blood everywhere, just like there were corpses of former citizens.What a pleasant welcome for Alucard, indeed. He felt a lot stronger now that he was no longer close to running water.  
__

_Here I come, Major,_ he thought smugly. He laughed - the imbecile had actually thought a No Life King would sink so easily into the cold oblivion of the Atlantic waters. That submarine prison would never have held him back, and they didn't. Nothing could. And the seals…

The flying mammals paused abruptly in their path, just above the middle of the swastika that was burning on the floor. He could feel the seals weakening to the point where they almost vanished, and then a pain as if his very soul was being torn apart. If he had ever had one. 

_Integra… Master!_

With a growl, Alucard made his way towards the source of the last lingering remains of his seal. He took a new form, shifting to his human façade, a figure cloaked in red and black at the side of the fallen Hellsing.

"Master," Alucard looked down, nostrils filled with the sweet aroma of her virgin blood, spilled now in a small pond that lay underneath her. Vampiric lust flared at that, but he contained himself and knelt down.

Integral was bleached, face twisted in a smirk of victory that contrasted with her otherwise condition. There were wounds caused be several bullets on her chest, on her abdomen and then on her legs. She had apparently crawled to position herself that way. One of the lenses of her glasses was shattered, its crystal stained by the crimson liquid. In her left hand, she held a shotgun with empty clips. "Master," Alucard said again, more insistent towards the unresponsive woman he held. There was no answer. Integral's heart didn't beat anymore; her breathing had stopped before his arrival. She was dead. 

Alucard remained still for a while, like a dog that had lost his owner and didn't know how to act out his freedom. Mixed feelings crossed him. Joy. Confusion. And a bit of sorrow. But above all, rage. He was angry at her for being weak enough to die; at the damned Nazis who had destroyed his work of ten years; at himself for letting those lowlifes get the upper hand.

He leaned on her face, pulling his tongue out to lap the blood off her skin. Not even the flavor of first quality blood could ebb his need for revenge. He put Integral's body down, covering it with his coat. For a minute, he was tempted to devour her body, having no drop of her delicious hemoglobin elixir be put to waste. Yet, he didn't. She had won his respect over the years they had spent together. And that was a remarkable feat in its own right. 

Alucard turned around, glancing at the Major who lay dead on the ground a few meters away from Integral. The vampire grinned sadistically, recognizing Integral's sword thrust in the mouth of the Nazi leader. It seemed the Master, no, the former Master had managed to strike her enemy down before her downfall.

The little girl had stabbed him in his chest, removing his heart out of the fat, and then she'd severed his head, sticking the saber through his screaming mouth. Excellent work; Integral had always possessed a finesse to kill in a manner so difficult to imitate. And that was now lost. Gone. All for this little brawl. Mockery of real wars. Alucard let go a tirade of insane laughter that shortly changed into a chainsaw snarl. It was so loud that it even covered the noises made by explosions. Velvet darkness swallowed the city. Long, spidery arms popped out from the Abyss, offering a frightening show: thousands of hands seeking out their preys, tearing apart anything that stood in their way. They didn't recognize friend or foe. In the midst of his payback, Alucard could almost hear Integral's words once more, full of passion as they had been in Brazil. "Search and Destroy!" she had ordered. So he complied. Grabbing the nazi soldiers--and whomever else foolish enough to not move away—, the hands cracked their spines before tossing them up in the air in order to impale them on the half melt, street lights, antennas and everything pointy enough as to suit one such job. He wasn't picky in his favorite hobby, as long as the stick went well, deep inside the anus and then came through the mouth. Anything would do. 

Their screams were a symphony to his ears, and Alucard waved and clapped the two arms attached to his body as he exclaimed: "Listen to them, Integra, the fake children of the night. Such music they make!"

Chaos reigned over his mind - Integral couldn't reply after all, but he pretended she could. Alucard had never been very sane while she had been alive, and so his madness only increased with her demise. His furious attacks continued until there wasn't a Nazi left on either the surface or in the skies of English territory. What was left of London offered a macabre spectacle suited to horror films. Flames danced high around the impaled bodies as the waters ran, the scarlet tinted river of Thames. Panic for ones was beauty for others. Alucard couldn't think of a fairer landscape. But the sense of loss would not disappear yet, even with this carnage in her name. It wouldn't bring Integral back. The vampire gnashed his teeth, wondering why it should matter. He was free to use the powers the Hellsings had bestowed upon him to his whims. 

"Master!"

Alucard looked up to the shout, lifting an eyebrow in an arrogant gesture of disbelief. Seras Victoria was flying towards him, her body and uniform soaked in blood, her face bearing traces of tears. She looked possessively feral as she fluttered only one wing and holding Walter with her free arm.

For once in his unlife, Alucard felt a certain pride for his charge. He was glad that his suspicious about her potential hadn't been out place and that the police girl would not act like a useless coward this time.

"Police Girl," Alucard addressed her with a devilish grin, looking at her for the first time with –albeit reluctant- admiration.

Seras landed to a prudent distance and released Walter, who supported himself on Seras. He had broken his left leg.

"Lord Alucard," Walter inclined his head in greetings. "That was your work." He gestured towards the Nazis. "Did Sir Integral lift the first level of the seal?"

Alucard shook his head, chuckling. "There're no more seals to lift, God of Death." He pulled away his gloves, relishing the feel of the wind against his bare hands for the first time in a century.

Walter paled, very aware what that meant. "Where is she?"

"On the burning remains of that blasted Zeppelin. Don't worry, her body won't be incinerated. My coat will prevent it."

"Sir Integral is…" Alucard heard Seras mutter in disbelief, wing falling limp beside her hip. "It cannot be."

"But it is," Alucard replied, striding closer until he was toe to toe with Seras. "Humans fade. They are weak, Police Girl. But you know that already, don't you?" His tone of mockery had an underlying one of bitterness. He had helped to raise Integral and had grown attached when he shouldn't have.

Seras' irises glowed red, so unlike the former baby blue color of innocence they had held. The mark of a true vampire. Of course, he knew of –whose- blood she was covered. 

"Tell me, Police Girl. What did the blood of that worthless human tasted li-"

Alucard couldn't finish his question, for the bat wing struck him in the face. He was quite taken aback and didn't pull away from the hit. He sneered, licking the trail of blood coming out of his mouth.

"Shut up!" Seras yelled, bearing her fangs. "The fact that you are a monster doesn't mean I am one as well. I won't tolerate your speaking ill of the Captain…" she paused, adding in a softer tone, "Master."

Alucard laughed, grabbing his head to relocate his jaw as he advanced a few steps towards Seras. In return, the police girl eyed him warily, feeling already remorseful for her slap but still standing her own ground. "Well done, Seras Victoria," he congratulated her.

"Someone needed to do that, Master," Seras gave him the ghost of a smile. Her eyes were still grieving.

"I concur with Miss Victoria, Lord Alucard," Walter said with a sigh. "Integra would have agreed as well."

Alucard's smirk faltered. "Yes, she would have, wouldn't she have?"

Studying the situation for several moments, the Master vampire brought his wrist to his lips, ripping away the veins with his teeth and then offering it to Seras. "Drink, Seras. Take the final step and rise to the throne of a No Life King. I don't have anything else to teach you."

Seras wiggled her brows. "As if you have taught me much, Master," she pointed out in crude honesty. Alucard accepted the barb; he had let her grow on her own. That mercenary, Pip, had aided in her maturing more than he himself had done so.

"Then you shouldn't need me around."

Seras tilted her head, bending to drink the dark blood. Her mouth descended on his self-inflicted injury, sucking the aquavit from it. Slowly first, speeding the rhythm of the sip until she was saturated. She pulled back, closing her eyes to adapt into—what Alucard guessed it to be—her new stage of undead awareness.

"It's done," Alucard concluded, appraising the aura of darkness encircling Seras. "You'll guard the lands of the Master and the tomboy princess, Seras Victoria."

One of the reasons he hadn't completely squish the bloody island was Her Majesty. She wouldn't have appreciated that. A call of truce from a ruler to another. As long as she lived, England would be safe.

"Yes, Ma-Alucard," Seras tried to salute but recalled that she couldn't, as any movement could disturb Walter.

"Lord Alucard. May I ask what exactly it is that you are planning?" Walter's intelligent eyes fell on him. The old bat was sharp as ever, throbbing pain in his extremities or not. Alucard wouldn't retire and lived a quiet unlife in a mountain resort.

"Why Walter, accusing me of anything?" Alucard smirked. "I don't have plans to move against England, not yet. Unless my boredom forces me into taking any desperate measures, I don't think I will for a long time." He turned to look towards the East. "The Holy See is my next target." Fangs glittered, and with them the shark-like edges. "Then I will come back to my homeland." He made a long silence, and then renewed his speech. "Don't try to either stop me, follow me or capture me again. The consequences would be terrible."

Both, Walter and Seras, grimaced. "We understand, Lord Alucard. But take into consideration Iscariot _did_ helped us. They brought you back…"

"Their aid wasn't enough, they came too late," Alucard shot back, hissing at the thought of the Catholics. Vatican would crumble at his feet. _Soon_. Very soon.

"I can't wish you good luck, Alucard," Seras whispered, sounding resigned at her former Master's antiques. "But I hope you fare well."

"Likewise, Seras Victoria." These were his parting words. Alucard vanished, little by little. Legs first, then torso and the upper part of his body, only for it to finish with his head. The last visible element was his mouth, showing off in the best Cheshire Cat's imitation.

Alucard materialized far from them, near the remaining Iscariot troops who had beheld the morbid demonstration of his powers with astonishment. He wanted to toy with the Catholic dogs first, to shatter their hearts. His attention focused on the nuns, the one dressed like a man and the oriental. Skilled fighters. Beautiful. Ruthless. _Virgins_.

Tendrils appeared from nowhere, snagging the sisters to him to his own success and the surprise of their partners. They tried to fight back, but Alucard easily disarmed them.

"Hellsing should teach her dog some manners!" Heinkel insulted. Alucard had seen this one before, acting as Maxwell's bodyguard during the briefing to have followed the trip of Rio.

"Filthy demon, go back to your Master! We'll see to it that the sow punishes you. Maybe years locked away will make you pious!" Yumi laughed, licking her lips. "With only holy water for you nourishment."

As Alucard crossed his arms, the tendril tightened around Yumi, almost choking her. "I believed you Catholics to have some respect for the dead."

Both of them froze in shock at such news.

"Oh, the pet is without a Master to hold the leash," the vampire added, enlarging his canines. "Now ladies… who's first?"

"We don't fear you, Nosferatu!"

"Looks like we have a volunteer, Madam Butterfly." Alucard grabbed Yumi's hair roughly and forced her to tilt her head. He struck with alacrity, sinking his fangs on the artery. His eyelashes dropped, warm blood traveling down his throat as he listened to the voice of a woman saying…

"Voievoade Alucard? Sir, we have arrived…"

-------

Alucard opened his eyes, stirring his muscles and back like a cat. He turned to the stewardess who was offering him a goblet of a suspiciously dark content. 

"We're about to land in London, your Excellency," she said politely and then left. There was no other passenger in his flight. It was the royal airline Þara Româneascã that only him and his ilk could access. It wasn't like someone even bothered to use planes anymore as it was considered an antique way of transport. But he liked it and wanted to teach that upstart, Mahisa, a lesson on not rushing him. He hoped that fool would be a better opponent to toy with once he had his beloved Soma.

Drinking the wine spiked by the flight attendant's blood, Alucard meditated on his dream, this flashback of the past. The vampire wasn't a sentimentalist creature, and so it worried him. Moreover considering he would have to face Seras and Integral's line once down. 

On the other hand, it was a habit of his, that of having nightmares of horrible moments of his past while inside an aircraft. Maybe, it wasn't a good idea to travel in the machine.

_Seras Victoria_, Alucard called out as the wheels of the plane made contact with the ground. She didn't answer. He guessed she either hadn't learnt telepathy or was deliberately ignoring him. 

Alucard wouldn't bring serious harm to his fledgling, though he would maybe test her limits. The Asuras had promised not to kill her. But the mere idea of a remaining Hellsing made his blood boil, especially ashey had had the nerve to use his former Master's face. He would tear the skin off their bones until made them unrecognizable.

_I should have known Her Majesty and Integra would have some back up plan. _Alucard raised his cup, thinking of them. He wouldn't allow some clone or fabricated woman based of his former Master's eggs to force him back into servitude. He planned to smash the wretched line once and for all.

He didn't wait for the door to open, phasing down and reforming inside the airport installations. Odd, there weren't many people around. Even in his country, the place was more… lively.  
  
A faint heartbeat caught his attention, a familiar scent that had haunted him for decades. _It couldn't be,_ he gritted his teeth, _They even feigned her smell._

Alucard spun, narrowing his eyes to the blonde haired woman who was standing between him and the exit. She dared to show the features of his dead Master right to his face. It grated him so much that he would have killed her upon first sight. He didn't because that would have been far too easy and merciful.

"Now that I have your attention, Voievoade…" Her voice was like Integral's, with same tones and variances. The same mildly annoyed and authoritarian ring. "Your actions are shameful, as are your alliances with the enemies of New Britannia when you promised not to attack this land."

"Instructed in history as well as acting, copycat?" Alucard grinned, starting to circle her like a hungry lion would a gazelle. "I made my oath to England. _England_ doesn't exist anymore."

She smiled at him, with not a kind but a cold, calculating smile. "Regardless of your poorly attempts at logic, Voievoade, you are a foe now – and as such, you shall face Hellsing's ace of destruction."

Alucard laughed at her words. "First Integra... now myself? Whom have they have replaced me with? Seras?"

"Close… but not quite, Voievoade," the Hellsing replied as her smile deepened. Alucard spotted something out of place. A pair of fangs grew out of her mouth. Realization hit him like a slap to his face. The body warmth around the woman as well as her heartbeat were a well crafted illusion powerful enough to trick his senses.

"Integra…" Alucard acquiesced, disbelieving of what he had just found out. All these centuries she had been…unliving.

"We haven't seen each other for so long now, Alucard" Integral chuckled. "I go by Elspeth now."


	7. The Tower

Author's Notes: Change of rating due to graphic violence. Again, I thank Lyanna Kanne for her editing skills.

* * *

**Durga**

**Chapter Seven  
  
- The Tower**  
  
Thirst.

According to the dictionary, thirst is 'a sensation of dryness in the mouth and throat related to a need or desire to drink.' For Peter, it was a pain in the arse and the bane of his existence. 

Years had passed and he still hadn't adapted to the blood cravings of vampires. The crimson liquid, even if unnecessary as nourishment on certain occasions, was yearned by his species as badly as oxygen was by the humans who needed it to live.

It was almost impossible to hide the stench of their mouth, no matter how much one brushed his fangs. There was no way to attract birds with such a bad breath.

But the fledgling didn't care for any of those issues in that precise moment. Bent inside the fridge, his eyes scrutinized the content in his quest for a blood package. Real blood, not that synthetic shite his Master forced him to ingest. Peter might dislike the habit but at least he had a choice between two evils.

"Ahem." He heard Alan clearing out his throat behind him. "I take it that you are searching for this, Bernard." Peter turned around, gaze fixed on the transfusion bag that the steward was holding. His mouth watered slightly.

"I'm not allowed to give this to you," Alan commented, brows furrowed in a serious expression. "Captain Victoria left me instructions to only feed you synthetic supplies." The old man winked and tossed it. "Let's keep this between you and me."

Peter grinned sheepishly, catching the thrown bag. He tore apart the plastic with his teeth and started sipping from it as if it were a Capri Sun. "Come again? What should we keep a secret?" he inquired with feigned innocence.

Alan smiled at the young vampire. "Good boy. I heard Sir Elspeth put you in charge of the Mansion's defense."

"I don't know why. Lieutenant MacLagan is my superior…" Peter replied, worried about his outcome in said task. Master Seras had left the Organization hours ago, and there was now not a trace of her. Elspeth had done the same. The knight had had a different look in her eyes, in his opinion - more anxious, almost predatory.

"A vote of confidence, lad."

"More like the last chance to set things right."

"Tsk. Perhaps, you should have more faith in your achievements."

"Crashing the new vehicles? Going pyromaniac in a pharmacy?"

The butler was speechless. Peter spotted the corner of his upper lip curling up as if he was containing the urge to laugh.

_As usual, I'm the organization's clown. Go me,_ he mused, miserably. Hunting evil vampires and protecting the country sounded peachy and heroic but it was a lot more complicated than one originally thought.

Peter finished to drink his blood then threw the empty package towards the trash bin. The bag hit the edge and fell outside, on the floor. Could he do something right for a bloody change?!

"I shall clean that up, Bernard. You go with Lt. MacLagan… I've detected suspicious movements on the perimeter."

"Thanks, Alan."

Stretching his arms, Peter left the kitchen, walking through the corridor towards the headquarters located behind the house. The militaries supplies were mostly there, as well as all the intelligence-related facilities. He found Stuart inside, concentrated on the high tech machines that monitored the area.

"Anything interesting?" Peter asked, leaning to hover on the Lieutenant's shoulder.

"It's too quiet."

"That's a bad sign, now?"

"There aren't even animals around, Peter," Stuart replied darkly.

Peter hiked both brows in surprise, sharing his preoccupation. Animals sensed danger first and fled to safety. The very same air was getting warmer. He wasn't affected by temperature changes but indeed felt them. "Prepare the men, Stuart. Something is coming."

"There's no indication of gunpowder, laser or any weapon, Peter. Nor are there vehicle signals according to the radar."

"I don't give a shite about that! Think about it. None of our latest foes were carrying the latest model of ammunition, were they?" Peter remarked. They were all primal beasts, fighting with claws and their might.

"I hope you are right, Bernard," MacLagan commented, rising to call out the soldiers to be ready in case of an attack.

"So do I."

-------

The troops stood on all the borders that encompassed the Hellsing Organization, waiting for something of whose identity they weren't sure yet. But regardless of this, they wouldn't leave their posts. There was an unspoken anticipation between them as if they were aware something might happen but not of when or where.

It wasn't long until they saw it, a group of phosphorescent undead, flying in their direction, offering a horrific show. Their skin was thin, almost transparent, bones glowing from beneath it. Sharp teeth hungered for meat, and anyone's flesh would do. Peter could note their eyes were shifting every time they bated an eyelash. Were they suicidal to strike so directly? The fledgling nodded towards MacLagan.

"Fire at will!" Stuart shouted, gesturing forward the coming crowd.

The soldiers pulled up the triggers; once the discharging rays of concentrated ultraviolet light went off, the rest hit them with silver blessed bullets. The soldiers who weren't wearing visors on their eyes, found a few difficulties with taking aim correctly due to the emitted light of the flying corpses that blinded their visual.

Most of the Obayifo fell, trapped on the rain of bullets and intense, murdering light. When they died, they gave a shriek so loud that had the Hellsing operatives grow deft. Ears bleeding, they released their weapons to shield themselves from the piercing cry.

"Pick up your weapons, idiots!" Peter ordered, cursing his sensitive undead senses. This was hell. His men were falling around him. He couldn't allow that. In fit of rage, half berserker, he flipped out the bars, charging against the Ashanti vampires. With smashing strength, he jumped on the remaining group, forcing them to land.

The Obayifo cursed in their native tongue before lounging to Peter. He ducked with ease, as their style of fighting was primitive, containing no self-defense movements at all and relying on their advantage of both age and number. Wisely, they circled Peter, starting an assault on each side. The fledgling growled when three of the African vampires slashed his back, but kept his focus on the one before him. Grabbing his rival's hand, stopping the strike to his heart, he grinned as he broke the wrist. He spun around to toss him to his partners in crime, throwing them to the ground. He took this opportunity to latch and finish them off, tearing them apart limb by limb. As the final screams died in the night, Peter could listen to his men, dazzled and deaf calling out for his help.

"Peter!"

_That voice… Stuart!_ Peter turned around to see a band of owls pecking the Lieutenant mercilessly. He hesitated. They moved too fast, and if he fired at them, he could hit MacLagan.

The Lieutenant attempted to get them out of his head, but he was deaf, brain still burning by the Obayifo's howls. "God damn. He-" An owl snagged his tongue out, tearing it from the base. His pupils dilated at the action, and immediately two birds were over his eyes, pulling them out of their sockets. He fell to his kneels, losing blood fast from his injured cavities, curling to appease the torture. The animals shifted into beautiful women, black of hair and donning green robe. The Langsuir laughed while eating the prized organs.

Meanwhile, small creatures assaulted the rest of the soldiers on that front. The group of Pelesit sneaked while the troops were suffering from partial deafness, burrowing holes in their skin with their razor-tail. They chirped when the job was done, giving the signal to their companions, the Polong. The latter had human appearance, though only an inch in size; they leaped on the operatives, entering their bodies through the openings. Soon, the victims started to rant insanely about cats, running aimlessly towards the forest.

It was madness. Peter froze without knowing what to do. Who to help? Where to go first? The yelps coming from other fronts indicated that their defenses had been destroyed effectively.

_Don't act brashly,_ he told himself, gnashing his teeth as the canine elongated inside his mouth. _Bugger that!_ Peter rushed to Stuart's fallen body, to the laughing women. Yowling, he punched one, fist breaking her spine. The other two backed off, shifting to owls and flying away.

"Oh no you won't, bitches!" he took his friend's rifle and shot them, blowing up heads and wings.

A strong tug from behind made him lose his balance - flying heads of women were keeping him on the ground, snapping viciously at his members, tearing his skin apart. His form was covered by them, and they were snacking on every bit of his body as their hanging intestines moistened his flesh, making it easier fpr the gastric juices to ingest them.

Peter snarled. Mustering his strength, he rose from the deadly mass of hungry mouths on him. Berserker, the fledgling cracked his knuckles before clawing his way out, crushing the heads together before heading towards the mansion. The vampire had to drag his right leg, as the muscle of his femur was gone, munched by the penanggalans. His left shoulder and part of his abdomen were in a similar condition. He stumbled, renewing his path by crawling towards the gateway.

_Master!_ Peter called out, desperate under the circumstances.

_'I'm coming!'_ Was her reply. _'Hold them, Peter! Don't mess up this time!'_

It was easier to say that than to actually do it. But even if untalented, Peter was stubborn. He had been entrusted with this and would try to do his best to the last.

He needed blood to achieve that. It was a twisted turn of luck: the inside of the Mansion reeked of the substance. Several members of the personnel were on the ground, neck twisted in impossible positions, craniums cut in a half, brains spilled over the expensive carpets.

Peter squeezed his eyes shut. It was a horrible display. The hall of the Hellsing Manor had a mattress of corpses. He couldn't explain how they had managed to get inside so fast. Not wasting more time, the fledgling leaned to lick the blood, swallowing great quantities. His life-force returned, slowly healing him. Better now, there was more that he noted. _Smoke_. The building had been set on fire.

"Anyone alive?!" Peter searched, concentrating on the expansion of his senses. There were fading heartbeats in the kitchen. Increasing his speed to arrive faster, the fledgling set his way to the source of the weak pulse. He was welcomed by another gory sight.

The chefs and several maids had had their skulls opened and now hairy vampires were eating their flesh and blood. Some others were dancing around the cadavers with intestines around their heads in the shape of turbans.

"Fuckin' beasts!" Peter cried out, hauling towards them. He proceeded to tear them into shreds, fingernails turning into claws. Once more, control was lost to him – completely so, until there was finally no single Brahmaparush in one piece.

"T-that would be e-enough, lad," a trembling voice caught his attention.

Collecting himself, Peter glanced to Alan. The steward was sitting on the floor, supported by the kitchen table. Beside him, two of the Indian vampires lay dead with a knife each shoved through their guts.

"S-so good of S-Sir Hellsing to have silver kitchen items," he gave a painful laugh.

"Alan!" Peter quickly moved to watch him. "You OK?"

The old man nodded. "They fractured my legs. But it's not lethal… If I'd been younger… They wouldn't have taken me off guard."

"They surprised everyone. We weren't prepared for an attack of this scale," Peter replied, frowning. There was no way to detect vampires if they weren't using technology. A mortal disability of their machines.

"You must escape."

"Stop kiddin' me, Alan. Listen, the house is burnin'!"

"B-by now," Alan winced, straightening his position,"the fire control system is taking care of that. Most of the staff are being evacuated through the emergency exits, Sergeant Brown and several men are escorting them."

"Oh. Good." Peter was relieved that at least not everyone had perished.

"They are searching for something," Alan scourged inside his pocket, pulling out a small vial. It was black with Sanskrit inscriptions and a silver moon on the middle. "Do you know what this is?"

"What?" Peter blinked, suddenly understanding. "Soma."

Alan nodded, offering him the bottle. "You must hide it. Keep it safe. Elspeth gave it to me before she departed, just in case someone would violate the place where she kept it. Quite clever on her part."

"But… I never do anything well," Peter protested. Nonetheless he took the Soma, sliding it his inside pocket.

"Go," Alan gestured towards the window. It led to a side of the Mansion, far from the main assault. "Run away from here."

Peter stood. "Good luck." Leaping, he shattered the glass with his body, starting down his escape route. Fireflies were blocking his way. The insects were everywhere, like a plague of light.

_Damned bugs_, he thought swapping some with his hands. A familiar sound made him pause. On the sky, Seras was planning, flying closer to the Mansion. He grinned to his oncoming Master.

"Master!" Peter beamed, without paying attention to the retreating fireflies.

_'Behind you!'_ Seras warned, but it was too late.

Peter only managed to half turn when a spear made of sharp bones severed his body in two, all the way down from his head to his pelvis. He was stunned in place, a geyser of blood dripped on the grass. Both hunks collapsed, already losing their solid state and turning into a dark liquid.

_Forgive me, Master. I screwed up 'til the end._


	8. The Death

Author's notes: This is officially A/U because it contradicts what happened in the Wizardry chapter of the manga (newest issue). I thank to keelin for her edition and to everyone who reviewed. Feedback is appreciated.

* * *

**Durga**

**  
  
****Chapter Eight  
  
- The Death**  
  
And on the third day she rose from the dead…  
  
At first, what Integral heard were echoes of faraway sounds along with the smell of decay around her, mixed with the fragrance of roses. Her body was numb; she was unable to move due to the stiffness of her muscles. Her nerves were awaking little by little, taking their sweet time to allow some mobility.  
  
Her mind was not in a better condition.  
  
Integral was confused about her circumstances, wondering who and where she was. How had she gotten inside and why couldn't she make her extremities respond to her commands? It was decidedly frustrating.  
  
_Calm down and think _- an order the knight would force upon her own chaotic thoughts. Soon, Integral recalled her name, her address, and the basic data of her life, which was quite the relief. Except for the fact that she was inside a bloody casket!  
  
Of course the Hellsing had not opened her eyes yet and she had not seen the sarcophagus she was in. But Integral had not spent her life around the undead to be uncertain. There was an agitation for such discovery. Had they buried her alive? Integral had read long ago about the fates of many people believed dead who had died suffocating as they scratched on the lid of their coffin.  
  
If that was the case, Integral would not dig her nails in a fruitless attempt of escape. A hero of war had dignity, after all. She settled to do the only thing that knew could solve this: call Alucard. And she would have done so, had she still possessed access to the seals.  
  
_Impossible! How has the connection come to be severed?! If this is one sick game of his…_ The corner of her lips twitched. She was angered beyond measure: the jest had come too far. Integral paused in her silent tirade, attention drifting to the noises she had heard earlier. They were voices - two, and both males to be precise. Who were they? She wondered as she listened attentively.  
  
"Bollocks, this place is holy, bro' Burns. Let's be quick. Which one of the boxes has the Hellsing fag?"  
  
"The one doesn't look like shit, fucktard! That one!"  
  
"Right, no need to be an arsehole about it, Mike."  
  
"Shut the fuck up, Will. Just go and shag the bitch, ok?"  
  
This 'Will' was removing the top of her casket, leaving it half open. "You sure you don't want a piece of her?"  
  
"I'm not into necrophilia, man. It's sick. Be fast, this place is giving me the creeps."  
  
"You rape children!"  
  
"Their blood tastes better spiked with lust. Ok?"  
  
_Oh perfect,_ Integral thought sardonically, _I'm not going to perish suffocated. Instead, I am to be defiled by a trash vampire while his paedophilic friend shall only watch, due to his sudden attack of morals._  
  
Integral could not allow that, she would defend her honour even if she had only her teeth and nails for weapons. But first of all, the knight needed to get up.  
  
Will slid the lid to the floor. The wood of the cover was resistant and did not break with contact. Integral winced. Not only did they mutilate Her Majesty's English--albeit minor offences compared to the younger Valentine - but that lowlife dared to almost break her casket! Black rage blinded her, such odd possessiveness she got over this particular good. Inexplicable.  
  
"If you hadn't arranged for Jessica and Leifu's deaths, we might have been friends, yo' know?" Will husked, bent near her face. The vampire had stepped inside, positioning himself over Integral's body. "Here comes the bride, all dressed in white…" he sing-sang in her ear, and much to her bafflement, his palm slid beneath her skirt. "Honeymoon ti-urk." Will was cut by the feel of her knee crushing his crotch.  
  
A stronger fire cursed inside Integral's veins, stronger than adrenaline, enough to give her the impulse she craved for, in order to silence this fool.  
  
"I suppose," Integral murmured on a tone both dry and cold, "that you haven't heard about foreplay, have you?"  
  
"Bloody bitch!" Will had doubled himself, still pinning her body inside the sarcophagus.  
  
"Language. Here, let me end your pain," Integral offered solicitously, proud of her bravado working so well. In that instant, she sensed it: The scent of blood. Her eyes travelled from the pierced face of the green haired punk to his loins that were still dripping the scarlet liquid on her white dress, staining it. Her mouth hung open at the sight, watering in an unnatural yearn. What was taking place? How had she been able to smash his genitals? Her own strength would not be enough.  
  
The flashbacks of bullets firing against her fragile mortal cell overwhelmed her brain. How she had crawled to a somewhat comfortable position and… died…  
  
Integral Hellsing had died, which was the reason why she had been buried.  
  
_Oh God… that means._ She could feel her fangs now. How they had passed imperceptible was a mystery, a denial of her own mind. Integral's canines elongated to hiss at the foe above her. Smirking wickedly, she wrapped his hip with her legs, grinding to the point of breaking his spine.  
  
"Motherfucka' Mike! Help me to kill the heartless bitch!"  
  
Integral watched his display, bored by his antics. She thought his struggling to release himself out of her crushing grasp was truly undignified. "Is that all? No wonder Alucard finds you incredibly stupid." With a quick blow, her hand plunged inside Will's chest. Scourging for the heart, she yanked it out with an icy detachment.  
  
_Now, who is the heartless one?_  
  
Blood… The organ was soaked with the precious elixir. Temptation was too great; no sins could result for feasting upon the enemies of God. Therefore, Integral brought it to her lips and sucked it dry before eating it, sharp teeth easily gnashing it into bits.  
  
An intense aching on her jaw snapped Integral out of her induced blood lust. She had forgotten about Mike - a bald, black skinned giant with a serpent tattoo on his arm. And he had hit her on the jaw with a chain. Her lashes lowered, relocating the chin to her original position. She would not underestimate this one anymore. With a growl, Mike lunged on another attack, yet Integral was expecting it this time. Wisely, she used Will as both shield and a medium, capturing Mike by the chain - making it encircle his neck.  
  
"What the-"  
  
Integral took advantage to latch onto the punk, tackling him to the crypt's floor. Her hungry mouth descended on his throat, tearing it apart to acquire the wanted doses of plasma. Her fingernails morphed into claws as she kept him down, beneath her weight. When the knight finished her meal, Mike had a glassy, unfocused gaze and no blood left in his system.  
  
The effects of bloodlust wore off. Integral regained her composure and looked around. Her eyesight no longer necessitated glasses. Moreover, details were clearer now, like seeing the world under a microscope, most fascinating. She felt like a newborn however, not lost and insecure like most fledglings did, the knight had risen by herself. Integral was not a mere half vampire or anyone's servant.

Integral was a full vampire. A true Queen of the night and the night called for her to explore its wonders.  
  
A pang of remorse crossed Integral's system in the midst of her victory. She had desecrated the rest place of her ancestors. And had not she tainted the line with vampirism?  
  
_But I wasn't bitten nor did I make a deal with the Devil. I died for my country,_ Integral reasoned, making her way outside the family crypt. _And for my country I came back._  
  
Her irises glowed in determination, her pride was not as important as her duty and the holy wards did not tickle her, as it should have been. _Perhaps,_ Integral mused, _This is all God's will. I'm blessed to continue my labour until the Final Judgment to compensate for the lack of an heir. _  
  
Once more, Integral's spirit strengthened with such revelations. She would follow her fated path until the end and honour her oath to defend the holy Protestant lands. Preoccupied by more important matters, the Hellsing never questioned herself, why she was wearing a white gown and a crown of flowers instead of a military uniform, as it was proper for her rank. But then again, she had so much time ahead to ponder that.

-------

"How? You were dead. I even stayed to attend to your funeral."  
  
Alucard's question struck her as hilarious. Was he so daft? The older vampire knew perfectly how.  
  
"The same way you rose. Or are you going to tell me you were virgin and a vampire bit you? I'm not gullible."  
  
Alucard's lips pursed up in a sadistic smirk, there was an unspoken smug satisfaction. "Inhuman in life, acting as a true vampire while mortal. No need of a bite or chip to bring that out after your demise. Impressive."  
  
"Flattering won't change the fact you and I are enemies now," Integral pointed out, drawing a silver rifle out of her coat.  
  
"I didn't expect otherwise," Alucard's face contorted in fury before relaxing again, masking his emotions. "Clearly you didn't consider me an ally anymore. Two centuries and you didn't bother to send me a word." 

"You told Walter and Seras the consequences would be terrible if someone of Hellsing followed you, Alucard. Don't blame me, but your poor semantics."  
  
"Enough talking," Alucard re-holstered his Jackal, loading and aiming ather heart. "Shall we?"  
  
"You still have that? Sentimental." Integral cracked her neck, stretching the arm holding the weapon, pulling the trigger to fire. A bolt was shot with such might that if she was not a vampire it would have thrown her backwards.

The blast hit Alucard on his chest, forcing him to fall back; the silver missile penetrated his lungs, grazing his heart. Integral recharged the rifle, tips stroking the firearm's muzzle with sick affection. She was expecting him to heal and rise, licking her lips in anticipation. There was no more anger, it was replaced by excitement that at last, she would test her limit against her family's so called greatest achievement. The knight was competitive and would not settle forsecond.  
  
_Stand up. _Integral mentally ordered, cue to her thought was Alucard on his feet. The injury was already closing, clothing sewed itself.  
  
"You missed the heart."  
  
"I didn't. You moved a few inches. That was enough."  
  
"Point taken," Alucard appraised her rifle. "Lee Enfield? And you called me sentimental about my Jackal."  
  
"It's patriotic," Integral remarked, shrugging and pushing the trigger again. This time, Alucard ducked, taking off running, his body low to the ground. He rolled on the floor, opening fire to the flare of her hip. The exploding round blew from her thigh to the left side of her waist, blood dripped in great quantity. She winced, gnashing her teeth to the rooting skin touched by the blessed bullet. She returned a few steps before rebuilding her limbs.  
  
"I see your regenerative skills are par to mine," Alucard's smirk widened, circling the Hellsing with a dangerous gleam shining inside his eyes. "It's been a while since I have had a challenge, former Master."  
  
"And I haven't had a chance to display the totality of my abilities yet. None of my foes had been worthy enough."  
  
"Luke Valentine was asarrogant as you are."

"He didn't have the Hellsing experimentation to back up his words," Integral said honestly. There was no need to hide the fact she perfected herself the same way her forefathers had improved her former servant.  
  
"Is that so? Then show it!" Alucard demanded, discharging the first round of bullets completely. Integral inclined her head, ready to acquiesce his 'polite' request. She hopped backwards, returning the fire with one loud shot herself as she dodged his assault. Seeing that Alucard was changing the empty clip, she leapt forward, pushing herself with the aid of the wall. Unsheathing her sabre to an incredible speed for undead standards, Integral severed his head with a fluid movement.  
  
Integral landed, knelt with a smug smile, knowing the initial upper hand was hers. Alucard certainly should have set playground rules; she was allowed to use all weapons at her disposal. The Hellsing straightened her posture when the pool of blood behind her, came back to the mockery of human form. They remained still for a while, located so close, back-to-back, holding their fire until the electronic clock indicated the arrival of the new hour.  
  
Simultaneously, the vampires turned around, as if they had agreed in this mutual attack. Integral gutted him, shoving the sword deep in his abdomen; his intestines fell to the ground, shifting into worms and caterpillars that were crawling in the pond of blood. For his part, Alucard fired at her forehead; in consequence the knight's cranium exploded. Her headless body collapsed, twitching.

It hurt. Nothing had hurt her more since the experiments. No other vampire came this close to defeat her. But she was far from over.  
  
Silence reigned between the former Master and servant; it did not take long for both to recover. Integral's body vanished, reforming completed as the bugs crept inside Alucard, closing the hole. He looked exhilarant at the brawl, grinning madly. Integral was smiling too, but colder, as if she was scrutinizing his next move.  
  
"Change of settings?" Integral placed the sword back to its sheath. It was time they would stop playing and get serious. Unlike Alucard, she measured time as a mortal; every second counted in her line of work.  
  
"Ladies first…" Alucard bowed before waving his hand, creating a powerful wind. The small hurricane was enough to toss Integral trough the airport window, as if she were a mere ragged doll.  
  
The knight cured the bruises made by the glass, licking the blood off her face. "Always the gentleman, Alucard," she laughed, shaking her head at his stunt. One could think centuries had taught him something about treating women properly. But she was not seeking chauvinism; she wanted to taste his blood.  
  
"And you, the principles of feminine incarnated, Integra."  
  
Integral snorted, laughing at his words. For an instant she had a glimpse of the past where they fought alongside, but the idea was fleeting. Alucard joined the enemy party. He was a bloody betrayer like her uncle. _Show no mercy - stop daydreaming._  
  
"Penny for your thoughts?" Alucard asked innocently, attempting to peer inside her mind. Integral shot him a fulminate glare as she created a barrier not allowing him to pass.  
  
"You have pried my mind during a decade, Alucard. Nothing has changed much for you to bother again."  
  
Alucard let go a throaty chuckle. "Ready for the last waltz?" he inquired as his body turned black, red eyes popped out staring intensely in her direction.  
  
"I lead," Integral quickly remarked, her own form was melting in velvety shadows too but instead of eyes, mouths cracked open. They salivated acid at the sight of her foe.  
  
Integral and Alucard spoke no more; unable to do anything but charge towards each other. They were measuring their might, by fighting darkness against darkness. In a bat of an eyelash the sky turned pitch black, swallowing the airport and circling zones in the bottomless Abyss. Alucard's mastership of such obscure tricks was greater than hers, Integral did not hold his experience, his tendrils were wrapping around her slender body, tightening in a crushing grip. What she did not have in practice, the knight made up by raw potential. By dripping saliva on his orbs, she managed to blind him momentarily, gaining sufficiently to slide away and scheme a new strategy.  
  
Alucard yowled savagely at her cunning escape, Integral was certain he was angry at his own careless technique. His shape morphed, fusing himself with the shadows. The whole place became a maze, walls of pure darkness moved to smash her, and spidery arms gave chase for her, trying to shred her with claw-like fingernails.

_The monsters are real, Integra,_ an orchestra of voices whispered in her mind, _And the king of them wants your head. _Integral pushed such distraction out of her head. She had to concentrate in the present, in her fight.

The arms drew closer and closer.

In order to avoid them, Integral lost solid substance in her mass, passing through them, as if she was a ghost. Sir Hellsing realized the battle for control of the Abyss was his; she never pretended to win that one. It was in her plans to keep this Cat and Mouse game until she put in motion her real tactic.  
  
"Come on, Integra… I thought you were going to fight me," his voice taunted, like a whisper near her ear. But her felt his presence further, it was just one of his illusions. He was not intimidating her. "Where are your awesome powers…?" Alucard demanded. "Stop holding back."  
  
Integral lifted a brow, pausing her path. "So you know," she uttered, her senses expanded to detect were she was now in equivalent of the real world. With her own shielding abilities, she hid this from Alucard, confusing his senses. The other vampire entered into a state of complete obliviousness when he battled, it was fairly easy to accomplish this feat. He was quite simple minded in that sense, his actions on the Nazi Naval Vessel that left him stuck in the middle of the ocean was plenty evidence of that.  
  
"Of course."  
  
"Show yourself," Integral demanded. With a mirthful expression, Alucard appeared a few meters before her. He was upside down, eyes trying to read her intentions. "I cannot continue this battle much longer," she hated to admit it, her pride was at stake, but the soil warned about the situation inside her territory. The massacre of her people, sense of duty, was greater than personal honour. "So I propose a deal."

_Accept. _

"I'm listening." 

_Please, accept. _  
  
"I'll display my 'awesome powers' as you put it so bluntly under one condition…" Integral made a dramatic pause, struggling for her choice of words. "The first one to fall in astate of final death will lose. If you win, we can continue this clash until you feel sated. If victory is mine, you'll allow me to go and help Hellsing. Neither of us can be destroyed for good, that should lift a burden from your soul." Her tone turned sarcastic at the end.

_You must accept! _  
  
"More than you think, Integra. Fine with me," Alucard rose his Jackal to her direction. "This will be fairly easy."

_Check. _

Integral mimicked his movement by charging her Lee Enfield; her features became a stoic mask, betraying no emotion. She was unreadable that way, the knight was clever to notice that pride had been his downfall, thus she would not follow his steps. 

This was the last resort.  
  
She fired first, missing on purpose, concentrating on the domain of shadows around her instead. Alucard, who guessed it was some careless fluke of her part, proceeded to return her courtesy, shooting three bullets in her direction.  
  
_Checkmate._  
  
The ploy succeeded. Integral misted herself out of the way as she lifted the Abyss influence, gaining the ownership over Alucard's, if only for several seconds. That was all she needed to move the cloak of protective shadows around the airport zone.  
  
Integral saw Alucard's dazzled face watching her actions; it all happened too fast for processing them correctly. He stared only at how his bullets pierced the aircraft's combustible tank, immediately flaring up the plane. The flames engulfed his form right away, reducing him into ashes. The fire extended to the building, burning down the installations. The Abyss contained further damages, well predicted was the evacuation of the perimeter.  
  
Meanwhile, on a safe distance, the mist transfigured into a horde of white cranes that set their path towards the Epping Forest.


	9. The Hanged Man

Thanks seras-kelia for the edition!

* * *

**Durga**

**Chapter Nine  
  
- The Hanged Man**  
  
Seras hated D-words.  
  
**D**enial of things related to…  
  
**D**eath of her beloved ones, that brought her the bitter sensation of…  
  
**D**eja-vu, which was a serial of moments that would falter and repeat over and over again to her displease.  
  
Seras was stunned when she saw the spectacle displayed below her. It was a small circus of horror, full of vampiric creatures feeding off her men. But everything paled in comparison to what she felt when Peter was killed. The connection was severed at once, the link between Master and servant, it was entwined with unspoken feelings.  
  
_No, God.  
  
Not again.  
  
Not anymore._  
  
And she screamed, a guttural yelp as she landed on the bloodied remains of her fledgling. No longer was Peter a failed replacement of Pip Bernadette, now he was a deceased son and she was the mother mourning his loss.  
  
Kneeling on where his body dissolved into a pond of blood, Seras started to lap at the liquid, trying to recover a piece of himself for her: To remember in centuries to come, to be aware of not committing the same mistake with another. The Asuras killed him, but she was also responsible. Not bothering never to teach him seriously or release him as a full vampire, believing that if she and Integral were able to do such things by themselves, he could too. Seras had been wrong and Peter paid the ultimate price for her mistake.  
  
Lick.  
  
Swallow.  
  
More blood that Seras obtained, the more of Peter she would acquire.  
  
Lick.  
  
Swallow.  
  
The sequence was a routine of sorts for her, but every trace of her tongue was unique in itself.  
  
Seras had seen so many perished in her existence. Despite all the experience she had in the world, about leading a military squad, nothing was as difficult as telling their relatives what happened. When Peter perished, she could relate why the parents were so disheartened by the notifications.  
  
Fireflies gathered around Peter's clothes, it was like a morbid parade of lights. Seras paused, sensing that were seeking something, but their titling was enthralling and she found it impossible to move.  
  
Lowering her lashes, the police girl came out of suchaspell, taking notice of the circumstances she was in. Two Asuras - a woman and a man - were standing close to her, neither made a move to attack her. Her eyes, moistened with unshed tears, for she would not cry - scanned their faces. They were, in her opinion, quietly waiting for the end of her grieving. Foes they might be, and she loathed them for murdering her fledgling, however they apparently knew the meaning of respect. Unlike Joleen and her troops, unlike the murderers of her parents, the two vampires didn't laugh or mock, their faces were solemn.  
  
It was puzzling to say at least, but Seras could not be bought off for one or two seconds of sympathy. Not when her home had been violated, her people massacred and her fledgling destroyed.  
  
With a snap of her fingers, Seras concentrated her basic telekinesis, lifting her Harkonnens – Vladimir I and Vladimir II- off her chambers and bringing them to herself. She rose, leaping forward to catch the weapons, one in each hand and started her round of non-stop fire. With the impulse of the initial shots, Seras landed on one edge of a balcony, easing her work and accessing to the complete sight of the perimeter. The fact the rest of the vampires didn't have long range weapons also was a benefit. The missiles blasted holes on the ground, blowing up more than one foe each time they met their target.  
  
Seras abandoned the general slaughter and focused her attention on the assassin of her fledgling instead. The black woman with soulless eyes, surrounded by the sparkling insects, had snagged the Soma vial while the Captain had kept herself occupied in wasting ammunition against the lesser Asuras.  
  
Annoyed for such fluke on her part, Seras spun, aiming the rocket launcher to hit the Adze. Zipporah anticipated this, throwing her spear on the barrel of Vladimir II before Seras could pull up the trigger. The velocity of the impact was enough to cause the self-destruction of the massive weapon. Seras jumped out towards the ground, dropping the firearm in the process. The explosion was powerful enough to make the balcony crumbled, pieces of brick hit the Midian's left shoulder, bruising it.  
  
_Perhaps, this won't be as easy as I thought,_ Seras mused, narrowing her eyes as her injured spot healed itself.  
  
Softly, she put Vladimir I down. No one made an attempt to restrain her; they were held by Lin's orders of non-interference. The Asuras were giving a fair fight and she would return the favour. Her duel would be hand-to-hand. Zipporah inclined her head, understanding. She tossed away the bone knives that were holding on her fur robe.  
  
Revenge was not her main objective; it was primordial Seras recover the phial. She knew what it was, Integral had explained to her whilst she assisted her on those wretched experiments the Hellsing forced onto herself.  
  
The elixir of immortality, Soma, was the one that had turned both Alucard and Integral, into true immortals. Only a few drops were left, enough to make the miracle happen once more. Hellsing had not destroyed it immediately after she drunk her part because of Seras. Just in case one day, she changed her mind about taking it.  
  
Zipporah started the attack; she jumped to Seras, hands extended with feral claws. The Captain dodged, stepping to a side and recovering the distance only to be latched off again, tackling her and pinning to the ground. Seras grunted, hitting her head with a rock, but nonetheless she would not lose this challenge. She could not.  
  
Snarling, Seras pushed Zipporah off her body with her leg, throwing the Adze backwards, against a tree. The dark skinned woman's back hit the trunk, shattering several shards of wood. The impact made Zipporah drop the bottle containing Soma. Sensing her chance, Seras lunged to catch it, but she was not fast enough. Zipporah - who was hanging on the branches - captured it with her feet andthen quickly climbed out of the police girl's grasp. Unable to stop herself, Seras bashed her forehead with the trunk. Dazzled, she returned a few steps, monitoring Zipporah's monkey-like grace on the oak.  
  
_I cannot move like that,_ Seras studied, choosing to use another tactic. Tendrils of shadows followed Zipporah to provoke her fall and take the Soma. The Adze grinned, pausing her path to call out light bright enough to disseminate the darkness.  
  
_Bloody hell! _Seras, upon seeing that didn't work as she hoped it would, started to push the tree. With one mighty tug, the police girl pulled the oak down, taking it out from its roots. Surprised, Zipporah dived along with the branches, morphing into fireflies so she wouldn't harm with fall.  
  
Seras was on the insects within the blink of an eye, snapping the vial from them, sliding it in her uniform front pocket. Zipporah,not wishing to be defeated, recovered her human form. Instantly, her features darkened in pain, Seras' fist had sunk deep inside her chest, coming out the Adze's back. With her free hand, Seras tore apart her opponent, separating her body in two pieces. The portions collapsed to the ground, a silent scream was reflected in Zipporah's eyes, her blood splattered Seras, soaking her clothes and skin.  
  
_You have been avenged, Peter._ Seras thought, licking her rival's blood out of her face. A mere taste was what it took for the Captain to havea glimpse of the fallen woman's memories.  
  
She saw a distant land with yellow shores and blue skies; a place filled with the wilderness of the savannah. There were people there, dressed in furs and bright colours, skin as dark as the ebony, smiling with ivory teeth.  
  
There was a pause and she saw newcomers of fairer shades, the so called cultured, that brought them the advantages of belonging to the world.

It was a lie.  
  
The happy people did not smile anymore. They were pale and suffering foreign illnesses that their shaman could not heal. Seras recognized the witch doctor, it was Zipporah, undead, and cursing the white devils that brought her kin's ruin.  
  
The last scene that played inher head, was the capture of the healthy ones, forced onto a ship with shackles and chains that would lead them out of the Golden Coast forever - if they were lucky to arrive alive. Seras wrinkled her nose, the place smelled ofurine and decay.  
  
The images hurt Seras as if someone had gutted herShe looked around; taking in the faces of the dead and undead Asuras. There was a gleam in their eyes she knew very well - despair and hatred of unquenched payback.  
  
_They are like me…_  
  
Her resolution faltered upon that discovery. Unlike Millennium, unlike the trash she had taken care of all these centuries, the Asuras had an ulterior reason: avenge themselves from some wronging. Vampires weren't good and generous beings, but possessive with their peers and lands.  
  
A sickening feeling overcame her. They had experimented on the same rage she was: They invaded their home and killed the people they loved; like herself for their invasion.  
  
The fluttering of wings took her out of her musings. Looking up, Seras was relieved to the sight of white feathers; cranes had arrived to the zone. She could distinguish Integral's form as the birds joined once more.  
  
_'Why the hell are you frozen and staring at me, Seras?'_  
  
Seras almost laughed out of joy to hear Integral. That meant that somehow, she had come out victorious over Alucard.  
  
_Integra! They are only trying to avenge themselves,_ Seras explained, doubt regarding what action she should take. Nothing was as simple and these vampires were not pure evil.  
  
_'And you should mind yours!'_ Integral's tone borderline fanatic. Seras knew that for her superior, the only thing that mattered was to defend New Britannia at any cost. _'I sense your hesitation, Seras. Remember who are you and where your loyalties lie.'_  
  
"Miss." Seras spun to find herself face to face with Lin Tse-hsü, he was holding a single sabre decorated with designs of tigers and cranes. He remained next to her, showing no to indication of aggression.  
  
"Bloody oriental! Seras leave him to me!" Integral screamed, phasing to Seras' side on the midway a barrier blocked her path. A chilling laugh filled Seras' ears, she near swallowed.  
  
Alucard.  
  
Her former Master.

Darn.  
  
"Excellent Integra!" Alucard reformed, dusting his coat. There were no signs of whatever bloody struggle he and Integral were involved. "You won that round."  
  
"Get out of the way, cretin. You gave me your word that if I win, I will be able to return to Hellsing and defend it."  
  
"And I fulfilled the deal," Alucard replied devilishly. "I didn't say anything about stopping my attacks. You can protect your home, Integra. From me!"  
  
Seras rolled her eyes. Alucard had not changed in two hundred years, ever the King of Melodramatic entrances.  
  
_'Melodramatic, Seras Victoria? I'm wounded,'_ Alucard sent a mentalchuckle. _'You have grown in power as well. Impressive.'_  
  
_Why thank you, Alucard. What's your excuse for being here? I can see theirs, but yours?_ Her tone was ironic, maintaining diplomacy, to not accuse him of being a traitor.  
  
_'My motives are my own.'_  
  
Typical. She should not be surprised. _I hope Integra kick your sorry arse._  
  
_'Tsk, using such words, Police Girl. Fledglings these days, no respect to their Masters.'_  
  
_Former Master, Alucard. And respect is gained, you taught me that._ Seras scoffed at the nickname, _I thought we have surpassed the Police Girl stage centuries ago. _  
  
Lin cleared his throat. "Miss?"  
  
Seras blinked, remembering that she was in front of an enemy. How careless, she had been engrossed in the mental conversation with Alucard. If Lin was not as honourable, she could be dead by now.  
  
_Smooth Seras. Even Peter would have known better.  
  
'Maybe you assimilated his stupidity when you drank his blood.' _Alucard's words cut her - the loss lingered inside her.  
  
_Shut up, insensible git! He was my fledgling! No one throws to your face how Lucy or the three sisters were slain under your nose! Get out of my head!_  
  
Seras did not receive a retort from him. Mayhap was a fool's dream to think Alucard had learnt a lesson of humility and acted like a decent bloodsucker demon of the night. But Seras was not an idiot and figured out the reason was that he and Integral were involved in another brawl.  
  
There was shadow halo circling where both her former Master and her leader had stood. Integral's way to keep the damage to the propriety minimal.  
  
"I'm sorry," Seras uttered to Lin who hiked a thin brow in return.  
  
"For your distraction? I gather the Dragon was to blame." Such affable tone, Seras bit her bottom lip. Did they have to fight?  
  
"No, for everything that happened to you."  
  
"Being sorry won't solve anything, that won't bring back the lives that were loss," Lin's words were softly, almost apologetic. That made the circumstances harder for Seras.  
  
"And more bloodshed will?" It did not make sense. They have changed - for better or worse, New Britannia was not an imperialism nation. But somehow she could not fault them for such acts. Emotions blinded her at times and became brutal as well. "Maim and kill?"  
  
"That's what you did to Zipporah…for the same feeling."  
  
"That's different! It's…" Seras struggled for her defence, not having a good argument. She agreed with him.  
  
Lin smiled to her stuttered speech. "But you're right, miss. Slaughter isn't the way to resolve this. It will originate more conflict. To teach honour and dignity to you and your people once we get the power is. Educate the barbarians and they will become cultured."  
  
Seras meditated for quite some time to find a solution to this problem. Her conscience and heart were thorn. Allegiances wereclashing within herself. Her morals and her duty were on opposite sides. "What's your name?"  
  
"Lin Tse-hsü at your service, Miss Victoria."  
  
Seras pursed her lips into a thin line. Her history lessons were not forgotten; the name was famous. Lin The Clear Sky, the antagonist of the British attempts to bring China to its knees by introducing Opium in order to turn the Cathayans into addicts.  
  
"You want the Soma, Lin Tse-hsü?"  
  
"No. It's for milord, Mahisa."  
  
Her eyes did not leave his, her foe's were not twisted by hatred like the rest of his troupe. A gleam of awareness and compassion could be spotted. Finally, Seras levitated the remaining Harkonnen to her hands. "We have our pride. And I will defend it even if that leads to fight you. No matter how different I wish things to turn out, I won't betray Sir Hellsing and New Britannia. Blame those pesky personal emotions of mine."  
  
"I understand. And it would be an honour to have a duel with you," Lin inclined his head, saluting with his sword as he assumed a more aggressive position. "I would educate you in the Chinese arts. A warning, I am strict with my training."  
  
"I had Alucard as Master, I can take your lessons," Seras remarked, pulling the trigger of her Harkonnen, targeting Lin. He appeared to vanish in the thin air when he only sidestepped and rotated to charge. Everything was fast, but for Seras' senses, happened in slow motion. The Chinese vampire hopped, landing on the barrel of her rocket launcher.  
  
Seras looked at him stunned, _What the hell…? I'm trapped in a Bruce Lee film…_ Lin grinned, slicing the firearm with his sword while spinning on the air. On his swirl, he kicked Seras on her neck, sending her backwards to the ground. She was about to rise when felt Lin's weight on her, his legs pinned hers in a position that made her difficult to move.  
  
"Lesson the first, never lower your guard," Lin lectured as Seras tried to punch him. All her actions were blocked by his sword - the edge slashed her skin superficially. She growled, moving her head to bash his, only to be hit on her forehead and forced back to her previous position. "Tut, tut, none of that."  
  
"I think you just broke the Soma bottle," Seras commented, scolding. Lin's mind swayed away for a nanosecond, not much, as if to corroborate whether ornot she was honest. Captain Victoria lifted the upper part of her body while he was at that. The impulse freed her legs and she escaped his grip without recurring to misting herself or any unfair trick.  
  
Rolling and leaping up to her feet, Seras tossed her hair back and smirked. "What was all that jazz about not lowering the guard?" As soon the words came out of her mouth, she had to move, dodging Lin who approached her while twirling around clockwise. There were small hooks on his shoes that, with the sword made his assault as harmless as the caress of a chainsaw.  
  
Seras ducked, falling to the ground. Stirring her arm, she snagged a fallen branch and threw it towards Lin. The man lost his balance, breaking that fighting stance. To win the upper hand again, Lin strode towards Seras; each movement was a deadly dance of coordinated steps. Hypnotic.  
  
_Don't drop the defences!_  
  
Her gaze followed every motion as she rushed backwards. The steps suddenly became predictable. Lin repeated them, as someone dancing a waltz. Grinning, she stopped, narrowing her eyes in expectative. When Lin gave the front stab, Seras jumped on his sabre to jolt him by kicking Lin hard on the nose.  
  
Seras saw Lin lost his conscious momentarily, feeling self-satisfied by her feat. Not bad for an Englishwoman, she told herself, bending down to pick the fallen sword. Suddenly, there was a whistling sound on the air followed by a thud. Her vision blurred, becoming red. She coughed blood out of her system. Her eyes rolled up to gaze at the katar that landed four meters away. The dagger through her back, coming out on her left breast with one lung and her heart and took them with it.  
  
"Lin was an idiot to have not kill you right away. Promise or no promise to the Dragon." The voice was smooth, alluring but so filled with loath, contrary to the Chinese man's. Seras fell to her knees; with her heart stabbed she was paralysed. "It's made of blessed silver."  
  
"B-bastard," she muttered, glaring at the teenage looking vampire.  
  
"Give me the Soma," Mahisa demanded, pulling out another katar from his sheath. "Or you'll lose that pretty head of yours."  
  
_Integra!_ Seras called out, feeling the silver steel on her throat.  
  
"Everything will be better if you _give me_ that," Mahisa said with a murmur. Seras' mind started to fog, it was like she wanted to comply with him even though he had harmed her. He was trustworthy, her true leader. Something was definitely wrong. And she did not think it was caused by the fact her organs were laying beneath the knife.  
  
_'Seras resist! He's controlling your mind! Don't listen to him!'_ Integral was agitated but could not do anything. Alucard was keeping her on the Abyss with him. Seras sensed the frustration growing inside her leader and friend as she clashed with Alucard.  
  
Against her commands, the vial was sliding off her pocket. Seras forced it to remain there. She could not move or use a great amount of power but basic telekinesis and grasp shadows those she could access of.  
  
_'Seras. Drink the Soma. Fool that idiot in that you'll give it to him and take it. Become a True Immortal!'_ Alucard suggested with a tone of seduction that would have put the Devil in shame.  
  
_So that's why you sic them to me? To become stronger?_  
  
_'It doesn't matter. Take the Soma - smite Mahisa. Become his Durga!' _  
  
Seras gnashed her fangs. _He's just a wretched soul. I can't bring myself to kill him. Not after what I saw. I would only feed the hatred. It's a vicious circle._  
  
_'Don't be an idiot, Police Girl! Mercy is for the weak, only the strongest survive. This is a war!'_ Seras winced at the mental roar, she was certain that Alucard would have struck her if he were right there for her insolence. _'If you don't do that, you'll die. I won't allow Integra to aid you. And you don't want to die tonight, or do you?'_  
  
_I…_  
  
Seras contemplated her choice once more. The same one Alucard had forced onto her when he inquired if she was virgin that terrible night centuries ago. His opportunities were blackmailed by death. Naïve in that time, she had thought nothing was worse than the ultimate fate. But if she took the Soma…she would wander the earth forever, losing what she considered human still: her mortality. That frightened Seras even more.  
  
"You had your chance…" Mahisa said as the edge move to cut her throat. "I'll just seek it on your cadaver."  
  
"Wai-," Seras blurted out before her vocal cords were severed the vial levitated from her pocket to the air. Mahisa beheld it enthralled.  
  
"Lord Mahisa! What are you doing?!" Lin demanded, having just recovered from Seras' assault. "We gave our word of not killing her!"  
  
_'That's it, Seras…Very good. Do it now while he's distracted.'_  
  
_Indeed, 'Master'?_ Seras addressed him with sarcasm, as strength was leaving her. The katar had pierced halfway already. _Sorry for not living up to your 'expectations. At least grant me the request - you and Integra won't become enemies over me. I'm tired of so much hatred. _  
  
Shadows gathered around the bottle, shattering it, the content lost itself in the endless Abyss. Out of reach.  
  
_'Stupid girl! What have you done?!'_  
  
Seras tried to smile but didn't find energy to do so. I made a choice. _Not everyone will bow to your wishes._  
  
The following minutes were confusing for Seras Victoria. The pain of her neck became more intense also the noises were indistinguishable.  
  
Screams - most of rage and one of deep sorrow.  
  
Her eyes were closed, she could not see anymore. But the sense of touch was still there. Tips were caressing her hair and cheeks, long and slender fingers. Integral was holding her head.  
  
_Forgive him. Forgive me._  
  
The world was left behind, her mind was transcending. In those moments she didn't recall all her life as film as many said, rather she was back to her philosophy class. She would always remember the class she failed.  
  
'Call no man happy until he is dead', Herodotus said.  
  
_Well, Seras. Let's find out if that applies to vampires as well._


	10. The Judgement

**Durga**

**  
  
Chapter Ten  
  
- The Judgement **  
  
They were in the middle of the darkness, endless obscurity everywhere Integral laid her eyes on; devoid of smell and any sensation but a chilling cold. So icy that even froze her dead core. No one knew for certain what secrets hid the Abyss, which creatures managed to live among the shadows or if it indeed had limits.  
  
Not even herself.  
  
"What are you doing, Alucard?! Seras needs us, you traitorous leech!" Integral demanded, regenerating the holes of his bullets as trying to escape the Abyss with no use. The other vampire's influence was overwhelming. She was disgusted by his actions. Had he not a single remnant of decency, even for his own fledgling? But Integral knew that Alucard never respected Seras.  
  
"Seras needs to take the final step to maturity," Alucard retorted with an infernal grin. Glowering, Integral mustered an extension of shadows to create a weapon akin to a whip. With it, she slashed the Voivode on the face, wanting to drawn his blood - to punish him. He laughed; she realized that her rival was allowing her to make each strike. And it granted her an advantage. Integral was convinced that she was capable of doing the job by herself; his generosity was unnecessary. "Come now, such fetish of the proper Sir Hellsing."  
  
Integral's eyes narrowed, she did not pay heed to his mocking taunt. In that moment, she wanted nothing more than to destroy him. Seras was in pain for his selfish idea of a 'growing up lesson.' She knew Alucard's end was for Police Girl's greater good - or rather what he believed was the best for his fledgling. The knight had been put in such tests whilst she was a teenager and succeeded in them.  
  
Minutes passed as they seized each others, they were so still that they resembled marble statues. But in truth, they were having a battle of wills, projecting their powers. Every crack Integral managed to open was soon closed by Alucard. Frustration was growing inside her, so was despair and above all things, anger at her impotence. He would pay dearly for this if Seras came out badly harmed.  
  
"Stop that, Integra. Seras knows already what she must do," Alucard assured, advancing towards her.  
  
"Never has it occurred to you that she has the right to make her own decisions without you forcing them on her?"  
  
"No."  
  
Integral's jaw almost fell to his response. Though really, it wasn't surprising after all. Alucard had such a condescending 'holier than you' wanker when it came to Seras and - to a lesser degree - herself. She was so glad to not be his charge.  
  
Alucard moved slyly, approaching to stand toe to toe from her whilst her mind swayed away. Integral stared icily at him before shoving the barrel of her rifle into his glittering teeth and pulled up the trigger. The sound of shots expanded on the stilled Abyss, echoing in their unexplored sections. Her face was splattered with the Voivode's blood, brains, and bones. She did not move a muscle, her lips tensed in a thin line of disdain. He could have dodged, she was certain; it was like Alucard enjoyed her violence against him.  
  
How come she could fight someone who adored pain as much as pleasure?  
  
His flinch endured enough for her to search a way out. Integral contemplated while he reformed his body. How could she be oblivious to what was happening outside? Alucard stole her trick of clouding senses. That would be the explanation.  
  
_Bastard._  
  
Soon after Alucard regenerated, the leering smile vanished from his lips. Once smug features shifted into a shocking demeanour, darkening. It was fleeting, but crystal clear for Integral, who guessed what had happened at once.  
  
Seras Victoria had chosen death over true immortality.  
  
_That fool!_  
  
She did not know if her insult was directed towards Alucard or Seras. There was no time to ponder anymore. With a scream, she tore apart the dark veil covering her and Alucard, rushing towards Seras' collapsing body.  
  
"Seras!" Integral could not help but wail, unable to hide the sorrow on her tone. The Mansion could be built again, new troops could be hired, but Seras, her Captain and friend, was irreplaceable. Leaping forward, she caught the head before it fell to the ground, attempting to stop a further damage. Her fingers stroke the Police Girl's cheeks, trying in vain to make her react.  
  
Seras' heart was pierced with a silver weapon and her head severed. That was mortal for every Midian who had not drunk the Soma. The elixir of life - that was her only chance.  
  
Quickly, Integral focused in the Abyss. Senses sought the precious liquor with no use. It was too grand, too undecipherable. The Soma was lost. Her last measure was her own blood. It would be risky, her blood became barren due to the Hellsing experiments side effects... it would not provide any nourishment. But Integral had to try. The skin of her thumb parted. Integral pressed the bleeding cut on Seras' lips as she kept caressing her face.  
  
No response, not even the tiniest twitch. It was evident that would not work. Integral could not play Isis and rekindle life. Gnashing her teeth in rage to the point of almost shattering them, her fingertips pressed in points that would ease her pain as the Police Girl uttered her last request.  
  
Forgiveness.  
  
How could she forgive this? The hollowness built inside her - the impotence and wrath. But Integral respected Seras enough to grant this. She was not like Alucard in that matter, despite the fact that they were much alike.  
  
Integral conceded Seras her final rest, granting her wish. She would judge Alucard for his behaviour after this; the Voivode would not go unpunished. Licking the trails of blood near the corner of Victoria's mouth, Integral swore to honour that oath.  
  
How ironic it was. Integral was doing exactly the same thing she had berated Seras for about – involving herself with her prey intimately.  
  
Perhaps they were more alike than she had given herself credit for.  
  
It was over; the knight could not detect Seras' brain activity anymore.  
  
If Integral were a sentimentalist sap, she would have sworn that the spirit of her subordinate was transcending. That there was a spectacle of sparks and light which only she was able to see. But alas, she wasn't. All that Integral saw was Seras' head decomposing in her hands, turning into a poodle of blood which poured onto the soil.  
  
Alucard's scream or rage rumbled the atmosphere, so did Mahisa's. Integral closed her hands into fists. The Asuras would pay. They were invading her home. No self-pity of what happened long ago would buy her like it did with Seras. She was not an empathic creature around invaders. 

They would suffer. They would scream mercy at her feet as she crushed their very souls. As every bit of their flesh was consumed by the thirst of her vengeance.  
  
Within Alucard's orbs ignited fire, hellish flames as he scanned his former people. "You broke the promise," he snarled, advancing towards Mahisa. An invisible barrier blocked his way. Her doing. "Seras was my bride, my fledgling. It's _my _right."  
  
Integral phased through the barrier, it made her furious Alucard dared to claim something on Seras. He was partly responsible for her demise. So was she. If the knight would have stayed instead of fooling around with the Voivode in the airport this would have been avoided.  
  
"Seras was my only companion and confidant for over two centuries, Alucard."  
  
Her tone was frosty, filled with firmness. She had never felt hatred so mixed with loss since Millennium's attack.  
  
"You... you were the one who killed..." Mahisa stepped back, stuttering. Integral smiled in return, knowing that she could win the battle without much difficulty. However, she wanted to crush the heathen, humiliate him. Fed on his misery.  
  
"You can kill the rest. But Durga is the one who slays Mahisa."  
  
Alucard did not answer, but silence meant that he had agreed to Integral's statement. He was too proud to admit it.  
  
"I'm not afraid of an old myth," Mahisa declared, tossing multiple katars against Integral. They stabbed her, biting her skin with silver. She did not mind the burns. Her wrath was stronger. "I shall re-write the legend!"  
  
As her foe trailed off, Integral concentrated in the perimeter, bringing the blood of her fallen troops towards her. A velvet curtain of crimson formed around her and Mahisa. No one would distract her from the quarrel.  
  
The vital fluid of her men was beneath them. She was walking on the pond, as her weight was light as a feather. It took her a minute to absorb the clot into her system. Integral had no craving for blood, but to take part of the fallen soldiers within herself. Had she acquired Seras' trait by accident?  
  
The blood entered through the microscopic pores of her skin, soaking her in scarlet. It carried a glimpse of the memories of what happened whilst she was away.  
  
Integral found herself back to the gory massacre. Smelling the fear on her troops. Her ears could hear the shouts of agony, the increasing pinches, as they were gut, cut and driven insane by the Asuras. At first, Integral lounged to help them, attempting to tear apart the enemies and free her people. The moment passed, cut by Mahisa sword over her throat. The blade severed her head taking advantage of her day dreaming.  
  
That was the past. Her fight was the present and the future.  
  
The falling head was captured by her arms that expertly resettled it between the shoulders as if was a mere flesh wound. Once the skin had knit, Integral jumped on the air, leaping backwards. During her spin, she jolted Mahisa on the chest with her feet, throwing him meters away. The Pacu Pati made contact with the limit of the red veil that separated them from the rest.  
  
The Midian landed not far from it. The katars dropped to her feet. They had shredded her clothes that were now in tatters. Integral looked feral with her hair rifled and half nude covered with blood.  
  
It was not in Integral's plans to remain in that state of undress. There was the choice of redoing her suit, however that would not be impressive enough. Mahisa's death would be spectacular. An example - a quick kill wouldn't sate her yearn for payback.  
  
The vital liquids that belonged to her troops, Peter and Seras were building a clot-armour around the remains of her wardrobe. She advanced, eyes narrowed in amusement as Mahisa recovered. He growled, as if accepting her challenge.  
  
To her surprise, the fool shifted to a bull form. More like an oriental Minotaur likely ready to stab her with his horns then devour the body.

Poor idiot, he really thought that would frighten her?

She phased away his charge, licking her lips in amusement. Even if Integral had vanished, the protuberance managed to sting her deeply. Integral was prepared to stop him in the following assault. She remained still, like if she was glued to the floor and extended her arms to grasp at Mahisa's horns, holding him. When he sought to strike her with his free hands, Integral surprised him by creating a set of extra arms - or rather ten new ones. Dozen fists hit his abdomen, forcing Mahisa to back off.  
  
"Did you run out of aces, Demon King?"  
  
"I still have some..."  
  
A lighting struck down Integral, she bit down a shriek as the ray was frying her from inside. Gnashing her teeth, the Hellsing swallowed the killing beam with her darkness. She would not underestimate the Asura anymore.  
  
Shadows and blood - she constructed her weapons using those elements and the silver from the bullets of her troops. It was done in a bat of an eyelash; Integral did not hide her might anymore. She could smell his fear as she drifted closer, as the tools became more distinguishable. 

Each of her twelve hands held one different - Khadga; Trishula; Chakra; Tir; Bharji; Khitaka; Dhanush; Pasha; Ankush; Sipar; Parashu.The last one was still hidden in secrecy. She had her reasons to keep it that way.  
  
Bristling, the bull-headed Mahisa lounged in her direction. Integral smirked, using shield to protect herself of the deadly horns. The fool had put himself at a small distance. Losing no time, she prodded him with her goad as another arm axed down the protuberances. He squeaked and retreated, his dark blood dripped down, joining the pond of mixed liquids.  
  
Did he expect her to follow the legend exactly? It was better to improvise.  
  
Mahisa's suffering delighted her. So did the despair reflected in those black eyes, akin to a caged animal. Integral tensed the string of her bow and shot the arrow to his left eye. In addiction, she aimed the javelin to pierce the other. The thunderdisc cut his tail.  
  
Blind and insane, Mahisa stumbled towards her once again, seeking to step on her. The knight laughed, mocking his last stand as she pulled out the club to smash his back. Yelping, Mahisa fell to the ground, just above her noose. Trapped. The Asura was now where she wanted him to be. Simultaneously, Integral plunged him with her sword and trident mercilessly.  
  
Mahisa was wailing, rolling around the floor. He had left his bull form and acquired human one once more.  
  
Showing no pity, Integral called out to her familiar. She had never brought it to the light or known what it was. A ferocious roar rumbled across the cocoon Integral had created. From her body a great feline came out. It was both lion and tiger in the same body. The shape was not well defined to tell for certain. The motions of shifting paused in the leonine form.  
  
Mrigaraj - the divine lion - Durga's mount; it was good it's origin was not demonic, even if heathen. Integral did not wish to traffic with devils of any religion.  
  
Despite how solemn everything was, Integral felt the urge to pet her familiar. The beast purred at her stroking. His orange fur was soft and pleasant to the touch - so soft and smooth. With a chuckle, Integral saddled the lion. He licked his muzzle, sniffing the groaning Pacu Pati.  
  
"Take it off me!" Mahisa exclaimed, panicking. A heavy paw descended over his chest, pinning him down.  
  
Integral stirred her arm to reveal her last resource. It was a cannon, made of what was left of both Harkonnens. Mahisa was blind but Integral was certain that he knew what it was when the circumference of the mouth made contact with his abdomen. The Asura was trembling uncontrollably. Going into hysterics, he muttered gibberish in his tongue.  
  
Integral had read his thoughts during their clash. She knew precisely which spot was his weakest: His mother. Dismembered in that execution.  
  
"Did you really believe that I would be completely accurate in this rehash of myth?" Integral asked, lowering her lashes. "Don't worry, little monkey," her tone switched to warm like she were another person - his mother. "I'm proud you wore white."

_Mother?_ Was his naïve response. No longer Mahisa sounded like an adult, in that moment he became the lost orphan child he really was deep inside.  
  
That was her final torture. The fact that Mahisa was filled with hope that Integral was really his mother reincarnated. It was fleeting. The noise of the explosive charges against his flesh erased that delusion along with his unlife.  
  
The chunks of what once was Amar decorated the ground of the Hellsing backyard. Upon Integral's command, Mrigaraj feasted over the bits of the grotesque foe.

White on red. The pure cotton cloth was stained.

The blood curtain vanished as soon she finished.  
  
The choir of cries was a symphony for her ears. Integral looked up to the source of such enchanting music. The sight made her laugh hysterically; she was hardly in a sane mental state after her duel. Where once stood the armies of Asuras was nothing. The creatures had been relocated on the top of the trees or rather poles made by thick vegetation of the woods.  
  
Alucard stood at the feet of everything, appraised her appearance before he offered his hand to help her dismount. Integral denied it, still mesmerized by the view.  
  
"I promised myself that London would have a new impaling attraction on my way here," Alucard said smoothly, hovering beside her. The vestiges of wrath were still darkening his features. Integral noticed them. Seras' death affected him more than she had deemed possible. "But never said which fortunate ones would become the decorations."  
  
There were no words of comfort for either of them... That was not in their nature. They expressed each other's in more violent ways.  
  
Finally, Integral shattered the silence. "Well done, Alucard. Though I'll send a court order when it starts to fester," she commented, half weary, half mirthful. Seras was right. It was time to heal the ties. Good Christians granted second chances. Integral would give it a shot. She had nothing else to lose.

* * *

Thank you Seras-Kelia for the edition! And to everyone who reviewed. Next chapter will be the last. Feedback of any shape is appreciated. 


	11. The Hermit

**Durga**

_"I salute Thee, leader of Yogis, one with the Brahman,  
Dweller in the Mandara forest.  
Virgin, Kali, spouse of Kapala, of tawny hue.  
Salutation to Thee, Bhadrakali.  
Reverence to Thee, Mahakali,  
Chandi, Fearless one. Salutation to Thee,  
Saviour imbued with all good fortune."_

**Chapter Eleven **

- The Hermit

History was not linear.

It was made by cycles that kept repeating themselves over and over again. Chains of sadness, rage, and violence as the circuit rehashed itself through all the eternity. It was never-ending. Very few times, there were periods of pure joy in which the victory of battles did not taste like bitter ashes. They were so sparse that one had to measure them.

Alucard was not a Buddhist - or follower of any religion in particular. He only spoke of personal experience. What happened to Seras Victoria reminded him of many losses he had experienced: His wives, his brides, Lucy, Mina, Tillabeth, Integral.

There was sorrow and anger. Flames of rage ignited inside him. He blamed her own weakness, her incapacity to leave her humanity behind; also the damn traitors that did not fulfil their promise. Integral was responsible as well If his former Master had sent a word that she was alive, he would not have attacked if he knew. However, Alucard was furious, his mind swayed of his prime objective when Integral appeared before his eye. Was not he important enough to be aware that she was not dead?

But the wrath against the Hellsing disappeared when he beheld how Integral held Seras' head. In the previous clash between the two, she had warned him that something may happen to his fledgling. Was this his fault too?

_Ridiculous._ Alucard sneered to the mere idea of remorse feelings. Those were human emotions. He held none of those pesky things – never did of the times he recalled his heart still beat.

Now bloodshed. That he was acquainted with. Slaughter and he were close friends. With a maddening grin, he allowed Integral her quarry with the leader of the pathetic army. Alucard strode towards Lin. His opponent had cast his gaze to the ground. It was the picture of a fallen man.

"If you seek mercy. You are wasting your time. These bones hold none."

"I don't wish pity. Least of all from you," Lin stated, pride flickered inside his eyes. "You won't grant forgiveness, and I have committed no wrong to beg for it. But her blood taints my hands. I won't defend myself, take your revenge."

Alucard was not impressed by the Commissioner's display of honour, rather annoyed that he was not trying to run terrified or fight for his existence. It took away the thrill. "Bah," he uttered, aiming his Jackal to Lin's head. The Midian pulled up the trigger, emptying the clip, blowing up his cranium. Lin's body collapsed, shifting to rice.

_He even denied me my trophy, becoming mortal food._

Perhaps under other the circumstances and if Alucard's mind were less chaotic and not so filled with black rage, he and Lin could have reached understanding. Both used to fight against invaders of their nations and held high standards of purity. But this never occurred to Alucard. He had only one thing in mind: Kill.

The Asuras beheld wide-eyed how one of their leader perished. Alucard smirked as they stopped their feast on the fallen humans. Some even started to retreat scared. He grinned devilishly and the branches of the trees captured the fleeing undead.

"Tsk, tsk. Leaving so soon? But we haven't begun yet," Alucard commented, lifting a brow in amusement. Many Asuras sought to defeat him. Throwing the most varied arsenal of primitive weapons, powers and fighting technique. He extended his arms, allowing them to reduce his body into a pool of blood and flesh – a false sense of hope for the gathered; a brief taste of triumph before he regenerated as nothing had happened, brushing away the dust from his coat. "Now it's my turn."

Alucard fancied to see himself a connoisseur in the art of slaughter- mutilating, boiling, setting in fire, gutting, impaling, shooting, hanging and stoning. He was a professional in each method and he showed it.

As Integral fought Mahisa, Alucard experimented the limits of the Asuras' bodies. The woods became alive, capturing each vampire and brought them to his wanting hands. There, Voivode Dracula exercised his art. Painting the palette of crimson and black. Each brush of blood and bone done by his fingers was mindful - his masterpiece of pain. He was a musician choreographing the symphony of the damned.

Alucard laughed, overwhelmed with insanity as he accomplished the final steps of his creation. Hopping all to the air, he forced the Asuras down the top of the trees that, mysteriously, acquired a sharp end. They shrieked so loud that it nearly pierced his ear drum. His ears were bleeding, regardless of that Alucard remained engrossed in the spectacle.

The spell was gone when Integral returned. She looked glorious in his eyes, all covered with blood and with a gaze of contented. For killing, she loved the massacre as much as he did. Alucard remembered that, recalled the time they had spent together whilst his Master was alive.

Seras would not repeat Integral's feat of rising of the grave. She would be buried and gone. Just like his other failures. The Hellsing would remain in her alluring splendour of undead might.

Alucard smirked smugly, noticing Integral was taken by the morbid sight. She was enchanted. Furthermore, apparently she was willing to push the conflict aside. As much fun as he would have to battle her, it would be best to leave it for another day.

"I thought you would appreciate the sweet aroma of death," Alucard pointed out slyly to her former remark about the decomposition.

"Buying me expensive perfume now, Voivode? What's next? Carnivorous plants to decorate my halls?" Integral inquired. Alucard grinned; he missed her sarcasm and wit. He could not reply to that, she continued while casting a gaze towards her Mansion. "You should go. I need to clean this mess... help my people and clear my thoughts."

"I can..."

"No. As I said, I'm still indecisive in the issue."

"As you like then... I'll be watching."

"Not if I cast you away from my territory."

Alucard inclined his head. She did not accept his aid and wanted time alone. But he would not lose contact with Integral anymore. Not now that he knew she was alive. He phased out of the Hellsing Manor, spending time on the Tara Romaneasca Embassy until he had another opportunity to make amends. There were matters to take care of his country - such as the increasing political and territorial influence of the Ottoman Empire that had risen from the ashes like the phoenix to annoy him.

It grated him greatly reading reports that the heathens dared to predate on his lands once more. Alucard would crush them as the bugs they were.

The Islam became the world's most popular faith since the fall of the Catholicism. They were gaining the nation's approval by using the religion. Perhaps, it had been a bad move of his destroying the Vatican centuries ago.

Days had passed; they were a mere blink of an eye for a creature as old as Alucard. The progression, however, was slower than usual. He hoped he was not going to brood. He was a vampire, a good to honest monster. Thus he could not consider himself investing in such petty human habit.

Alucard returned to face Integral during the funerals. He had to come back to his State soon. He watched the burials of the Hellsing troops from afar, not wishing to involve himself in the dull ceremony unless he gained something.

The few survivors gathered around Integral, giving condolences and the duel courtesy that was proper. Once the vicar finished the blessings, the crowd started to leave. They passed near him without acknowledging his presence. Humans preferred to hide in denial than to admit there was a monster in the closet? The existence of vampires was no mystery but after the initial boom, the human beings chose to fall into blissful ignorance once more.

Their God blessed ignorance.

"Alan. I want to be alone," Integral commanded, she started to move closer to the newly dug graves.

"As you like, Lady Elspeth," the steward replied curtly, starting his path with difficulty. Favouring one leg over the other, Alan stumbled towards the car.

"So you know I'm here already."

Alucard appeared behind Integral, scanning the names craved on the tombs - old and recent. Walter Dornez, Pip Bernadette, Seras Victoria, and Peter Bernard.

"The soil is one with the Master vampire, Alucard. That's me, and it whispers everything," Integral repeated with a neutral tone. "I know you're familiar with that."

Alucard sensed something odd now he was close and not in a battle mood. Integral's aura was frost, even colder than his as if there was no stolen heat rushing inside her veins. It was strange. She did not look like someone reluctant to kill.

"There's no body warmth. At all… Feeding on blood bags instead of taking living preys? That's disappointing… Are you moping for Seras?"

"I'm mourning, not moping," she sneered. "And I dread the medical supplies, their flavour is awful. You shouldn't make such assumptions… My victims aren't the living," Integral stated proudly.

Alucard realized that killing humans, the impure ones who stood her way, did not faze his former Master at all. He was aware of that by personal experience in Brazil and with her uncle. But she was born and raised as a vampire hunter and would not settle for a lesser quarry, that was obvious. Vampires and monsters were her preys, a predator of predators. Integral was simply perfect. Once more, Alucard's gaze fell on the tombstones. Their soil was holy. Christian.

"You gave vampires a Christian burial, Miss Hellsing? Pity their bodies melt to nothing."

"It's symbolic. They fought for God, the Lord would received them with welcoming arms... Besides, I know that Seras would like to be there, next to Bernadette."

"Ah yes... She never could get the rid off that attachment with the mortal. That was her undoing."

His tone was cold and hateful. Alucard still had not forgiven Seras' nerve of defy his great plans. His strategy was to place her high on a throne. Stupid girl, after all the problems he had faced for her. Children were ungrateful these days.

"Do you really think so?" Integral glared. "Seras wasn't soshallow to die of a broken heart. She died for what she believed it was right."

"Pity for the weak now, Integra?"

"Seras wasn't weak. If your self centred standards could see beyond your nose, you would have appreciated different kind of strengths," Integral retorted with fanaticism. Alucard snorted in response. "If you considered her pathetic, you wouldn't have come for her, would you?"

And she had exactly nailed down the issue. Integral had read his intentions crystal clear. Alucard nearly snarled but refrained, keeping his lips pursed up within an infuriating grin that slightly faltered. "I wanted her to shine," he started, eyes fixed on the tomb. "I wanted her to be perfect, to make me feel proud of her achievements. She needed to take some small steps, to grow crueller, to break her idealism."

Alucard felt a reluctant hand patting his back and lifted a brow in response – Police Girl's attitude rubbing on Integral? "I know. That's why you brought foes that would question her morals... But you lost Alucard, Seras won. She remained herself. Not everyone will adhere to your mindset."

"You did."

"Partly. But it was because that's how I am, independent of your influence."

Alucard's eyes left the grave to focus on Integral. "You are the real Durga. And don't shake your head, Integra. Are you telling me Seras is Durga now?"

Integral chuckled; he disliked her condescending gaze. As if she knew more than him. Alucard was five hundred years his former Master's senior.

"She was a different kind of Durga," Integral pointed out, rising her eyes to the grey sky. The clouds had gathered all day, menacing with a storm that never arrived. "Seras surpassed in morality to Mahisa by refusing to kill him. She was victorious in that sense."

Alucard's eyes narrowed, not quite seeing the point of a triumph so meaningless. The martyr-hood was pathetic in his opinion. "But she died."

"She did?" Integral hiked a brow. "She won eternal rest."  
**  
**Christian mindset until the end - Integral had not changed in the least. He swayed from the subject, no need to have a religious debate over Seras' grave.

"Whatever you say, former Master."

"You know, Alucard. You should be honest of what you feel," Integral suggested, scrutinizing his features. Alucard noted that she was studying him. "I don't mean about being a sentimentalist or wailing. But at least acknowledge it."

"What makes you think I'm not hollow, Integra? Emotions are for the weak."

"It's proper of someone with a fragile character not being able to defeat denial. Are you so weak?"

Alucard's corners of his lips twitched, disliking the truth that was inside her statement. He did feel, in his own psychotic way, but he was able to have strong emotions. More animalistic than human.

"Fine, since you have me well deciphered. Yes, I will miss Seras. But I've lived without her for two centuries, it won't be a drastic change on my life..." Alucard's smirk deepened, his orbs gleamed with cruelty. "Unlike you. Perhaps, Integra, you should see beyond those self centred standards of yours and realize there's different kind of relationships."

Integral scoffed to his delight. Alucard had used her own words against her. He was certain, she wanted to maul him for his taunt. But she collected herself far too fast to his disappointment.

"I think... you should go, I'm sure you have a lot to take care on your country. Unless, of course, you yearn to hand the throne to the sultan," Integral gave him a cheeky smile. Alucard huffed, flustered by her come back. "Besides, it's better to part before you ruin any possibility of reconciliation with that big mouth of yours."

"As long you are willing to keep in contact," Alucard shrugged, inclining his head to the taunt.

"If that keeps you away of problems and megalomaniac schemes. I shall."

"It's a contract then," Alucard declared smoothly as his body started to shift becoming a horde of bats. "Good evening, Miss Hellsing." His basso voice purred between the squeaking noises of the mammals.

"Good bye, Alucard."

Alucard took off, diving through London's sky to a great speed. Docents of tiny pairs of eyes glanced at the distant figure of Integral on the graveyard. That brought back some memories of a previous funeral. Hers.

_I wonder if she knows why she was wearing that dress. Probably not,_ Alucard thought, contemplating the possibilities to tell her before he returned. Finally, he decided against it. Better was to wait and heal the ties before discussing the topic. _In another occasion. I have until the Judgment Day._

Such was the luxury of being a True Immortal.

**_The End_**

* * *

Author's Notes: Well, this is the last chapter of _'Durga' _(edited by Seras-Kelia). Many things went AU as new issues in Japan were released. Oh well, it was meant to be. I appreciate the support of everyone who reviewed, I'm working now in fix some format problems that happened when I updated to this site (thewordstogether). I would appreciate some honest critique in this story beyond the one liners reviews, I thank my readers who reviewed or entered in contact with me. Perhaps in the future I could write the sequel to this fic; _Kali._


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